Divinity and the Devil's Luck
by Amethystanarchist100
Summary: Roland- the infamous courier of the Mojave wasteland. He has pit himself against legion slavers, psychotic super mutants, and the legendary deathclaw, always coming out on top. But now, his greatest challenge awaits him; uniting three kingdoms at war, and stabilizing an entire country. Chapter 6 is out! Rated M for violence and sexual themes. (Chapter 3/6 revised)
1. Prologue

Divinity and the Devil's Luck

Prologue

 **Alright! So, I know that I'm a bit busy with other things right now, what with From Ashes growing in popularity and Crossed Fates being a big project in-and-of itself, but I was given this idea by a fan of mine (Ha! I have fans!) and I just couldn't resist.**

 **Yes, this is a Koihime Musou/ Fallout New Vegas crossover, and I feel like it can work, if done right.**

 **Whether or not I can do it right is debatable at best, but we'll see here. Won't we?**

 **Unlike my other two stories, the prologue will come out by itself. I'm doing this because this is pretty much something I'm pulling out of my ass as I go along, and I need to get some planning done before actually going anywhere with this story. Oh**

 **That, and I need feedback. As such, I would really appreciate any fans of either series helping me out on this one.**

 **Anyways, I'll include a huge, whopping AN at the end of this prologue to tell you what you can expect from it. As per usual.**

 **With that out of the way; enjoy the fic. That's an order.**

"Speech"

' _Thought/Reading'_

"Synthesized/Robotic Speech"

*Onomatopoeia* (sound effect)

 **(Author's Note)**

 **Xxxxxx Scene Change xxxxxx**

 **xxxxxx** Scene Break

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Koihime Musou, The Fallout series, or any thing related to either of them.

The story itself is the machination of Fanfiction author; drake202. I'm just the writer.

 **And without further ado; let the story begin.**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

The chirping of crickets filled the desert air.

He sat there alone at that campfire in the small ruined building in the middle of the desert, and seemed perfectly comfortable with it, despite the rubble at his back.

The man in question looked to be in his early twenties and stood at just over 5'9"; or at least he would have, if he were standing up. His skin was a dark shade, though it was unclear if that was a tan, his natural colour, or a layer of dust kicked up from the surrounding wasteland. Really any one of them could have been equally likely.

His body was clad in a simple brown leather duster with thick shoulder pads, held fast to him by ammo belts crossed over his chest, and under which he wore a brown shirt and a pair of blue jeans; a simple but effective combination. Covering his hands was a pair of fingerless black gloves, and a set of leather boots that matched his coat were worn over his feet to protect them from both the elements and external threats. His face was covered by a cowboy hat, comprised of a similar leather to his coat and boots, which he had tilted down to block out the heat and light of the flames as he rested his back against a shattered brick wall.

Said brick wall was a part of a larger ruin that, at one point, might have been a small house, but was now reduced to some wooden framework, a few brick outcroppings, and a pile of rubble, in the center of which sat a campfire. Sure, it wasn't the most glorious or sanitary of conditions, but the man seemed comfortable enough to sit in the dirt, so there wasn't any complaining. In fact, the light snoring from beneath the veil of his hat's brim indicated he was at ease with the solitude and the potential dangers of the typically hostile environment. Deserts in general aren't quite known for being hospitable at the best of times.

This relaxing situation was dispelled, however, when the sound of boots crunching on the broken asphalt of a nearby road stirred the man from his sleep. He reached up and tilted his hat back over his head, revealing a stormy set of blue eye, the same dark shade as a raincloud, and framed by a few locks of deep, russet brown hair that poked out of the hat.

Said eyes glanced over at the apparent interloper, who paused in place when their own brown orbs met the dark blue. The other man was nobody special; as said, he had brown eyes, crude leather armor, and a shaved head. He was a bit younger than the man at the fire, but not by much, and his hands were up in a defensive position.

"Sorry!" the man said hurriedly "I saw the fire and came to see what was up. I was just curious; I don't mean any harm." he explained.

The sitting man grunted and reached into a bag at his side, withdrawing a bottle of whiskey from the sack. "Curiosity is somethin' that can get ya' killed out here. Trust me, I know from experience." he said in a gravelly voice before pulling off the lid and downing a quarter of the bottle in one go.

"Sorry to bother you." the other male said. "It's just… I've been wandering for a while, and I got tired, so I was hoping…" he trailed off.

The older man snorted. "Fine. Take a load off, but keep to that side of the fire." he instructed gruffly, and the visitor did as instructed, taking tentative steps and keeping mostly quiet.

The silence lasted only lasted a moment before the younger male decided to break it. "Soo… you got a name?" he asked awkwardly.

"Roland." grunted out the man simply, giving his stubble a scratch before returning to his bottle in silence.

The younger male smiled nervously. _'Not much of a talker, eh?'_ he mused quietly, but was not deterred from his attempt at conversation. "Well, Roland… what are you doing out here?"

The bearded man paused and gave the scrawny-looking bald male a once-over before responding slowly, cautiously, and silently. "I'm here to… bring unity." he said, much to the confusion of the younger man.

"Bring un-… what do you mean?" he asked.

"There's news of a new group of tribals a good ways to the south of the Mojave; just moved in last week as far as I know." Roland explained "Made it my job to go out and welcome them into the fold."

The bald man gave him a curious look. "What do you mean by 'the fold?'"

The cowboy sighed. "Truth is; I just came outa' the Lucky 38. I'm going out to talk these tribals into joining the New Vegas alliance. Sorta like a…" he paused, looking for the word to use "…foreign dignitary."

This piqued the thinner man's interest. "Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me you work for Mr. House… as in; _the_ single most powerful and wealthy man in the Mojave, if not the whole world?"

Roland snorted, as though he'd been told a mildly funny joke. "Something like that." he said with a small smirk, before taking a long drought from the whiskey bottle, finishing off the burning liquid, then stuffing it back into the bag. "Anyways, the problem is that all these tribals are talk a whole other language. Somethin' about them being from across the…" he paused in thought again. "Oh, what did they call it again? The 'ocean?' Whatever _that_ is."

The scrawny man chuckled. "Yeah, my grandma always told me stories about the world before the war. Not that she was there, but we had a bunch of books back home that she'd always read from." he said, recalling his grandmother fondly. Suddenly, though, he realized something odd.

"Wait." he said, bringing the discussion to a halt. "If they speak a totally different language, then wouldn't that make discussions difficult?"

Roland gave another small sigh, but this one seemed more exasperated than anything. "I have a few…" he hesitated and cringed "…friends, who're working on a translator for my pip-boy."

"Oh. Sounds fancy." said the bald man.

Roland nodded. "Very fancy. Expensive, too."

The two men laughed a little, before returning to silence, no longer having a topic to talk about. As such, Roland reclined against the brick wall again and the bald man leaned on his hand, resting his elbow on a knee.

Once more, though, the silence was broken by a question.

"You haven't given me your name yet."

Well, it was more of a statement, but the meaning is the same.

The blond man laughed a little. "Sorry about that." he apologized "My name's Vince."

Roland inclined his head slightly. "Vince, eh?" he said "…And what about your friends?"

The now-named Vince suddenly went rigid. "Wh-What do you mean 'friends?'"

The cowboy quirked a brow at that. "You know; the two people who spent the last few minutes getting into position behind me before you appeared." he explained.

Vince went pale suddenly. "Damn it!" he cried "Now!"

With that signal, two armed warriors popped up from the bushes behind Roland, rifles in hand, even as Vince withdrew a blocky-looking gun from his side, the tip glowing a bright, ruby red.

"Now, just hand over your valuables nice and slow, and we won't have to hurt you."

Roland, on the other hand, made no such move; instead, he merely sat there and sighed for a third time. "Y'know, I should probably be insulted that you think such a cheap tactic would work on me. Points for effort, but you're pretty overconfident, considerin' who you're facing now."

This confused the bald male. "Wait… what?"

"Tell me…" implored the cowboy "Did you really think that I would just let you get behind me without some sorta contingency plan? Especially considerin' I knew you were coming from a mile off."

The three bandits balked. "W-What do you-"

*Pew! Pew!* *Bang!*

With two red bolts, the bandits at Roland's back were sent to the ground with smoldering holes in the backs of their heads. Even as that was happening, though, the cowboy flicked his arm down to his hip and withdrew a revolver, which he then snapped up towards the remaining bandit while he was distracted. The whole process took about a millisecond, and the bullet shattered one of the bald gunman's knuckles and sent the blocky gun falling to the side.

"Fuck!" shouted the would-be robber as he fell to the ground, clutching his ruined limb, then looked up just in time to catch the other man pointing his gun directly at his head. His eyes then went wide, his pupils narrowed, and his body was shaking in fear. "H-How…?"

The bearded man smirked under the shadow of his hat. "Out here, it pays to always keep track of your surroundings. It also helps having a heavily armed robot with threat detectors installed." he explained sarcastically.

"Wha-" *Bang!*

And with that, the final bandit crumpled to the ground.

Roland scoffed. "Tch. Idiots thought we wouldn't notice."

A hovering, spherical robot floated out of some brush behind the corpses of the two bandits, before hovering up to Roland's side. It surface was covered in armor, and from its top and bottom protruded a series of backwards-facing antennae that didn't seem to serve much purpose other than aesthetics. On the front was a series of black screens, looking something like a compound eye or hockey mask. Descending from beneath the mask/eye on the front of its body was something that looked like a spotlight with a series of wires and tubes protruding from the main body and into it. On its side was a polished license plate with the letters "ED-E" scrawled in red.

"See, this is why I don't trust people." said the brown-haired man as he stowed the revolver on his hip again.

Music blared from the floating machine. "Let the bodies hit the floor!" then the music clip cut out.

Roland turned to the robot with a brow elevated. "Never heard that one before." he said "How many music files d'you have?" he then thought better of the question. "On second thought; never mind. Probably take you hours to go through 'em all."

He then turned and began walking away from the campsite. "Anyways, let's get going. It's a long way to the Big Empty, and more bandits are liable to come looking for easy pickings… goddamn vipers." He paused briefly to pick up the blocky gun the bald man was carrying, as well as the ammunition from all three bodies.

He didn't find much else on them of value, much to his distain, but he was happy enough to have the ammo on hand, so he couldn't complain. Instead, he simply got to wandering through the desert sands, his floating companion in tow.

They had a lot of ground to cover, and the sun would rise soon, issuing forth another day in the Mojave wasteland.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **And that's a wrap!**

 **Well, that actually went far smoother than anticipated, considering I was just flying by the seat of my pants here. But this is the prologue, and I have a feeling that this technique won't work so well with the longer chapters later on, especially considering that I know so little about Koihime Musou outside the anime and short manga series.**

 **Before anyone asks; no, this will not get in the way of writing other stories. As I said, I don't know much about the universe that the courier's going into, and my knowledge of the Fallout New Vegas quest lines is limited at best. Because of this, I have to do some research, watch some videos, and play through a few games to get a grasp on exactly what's going on. I have to do a lot of research in order to stay somewhat true to the lore, and I'm not too familiar with the romance of the three kingdoms as a whole, but I intend to do some historical research on top of the game cannon research in order to make the world a bit more fleshed out.**

 **Speaking of the world; I want to establish where we are in the New Vegas lore. Without giving away too much of the story, the main mission quest and all of the DLC main missions are done. I won't say any more than that in terms of in-game missions, but I will say that I might also include some well-known, and well-constructed mod missions. As for side-missions; some of them will already be completed, and others need might need completing, which may or may not occur in this story.**

 **Also, you might realize that ED-E (or Eddie, if you prefer) uses his radio to communicate. I got the idea after watching Gophersvids on youtube, in which he had a mod made that had him play "flight of the valkyries" when in combat, as opposed to the usual ambiguous cowboy music. I recommend the channel, by the way.**

 **Seeing that, the idea came to me "Why doesn't he play other songs?" so I decided to give him a full soundtrack. And I assure you, it is lore friendly… for this AU that the fic is set in, but more on that way down the line.**

 **Anyways, that's all I got for now. I'll let you lot know if there are any more developments in this story. Don't forget to check out my other two fics; "Crossed Fates," a To Love-Ru/ Omamori Himari crossover (For now), centered around a very strange and unique little man, and "From Ashes," a RWBY fanfic focused on an original team comprised of a colorful cast of characters based in classical literature.**

 **And with that out of the way, I'll see you all in the next chapter. Buh-bye for now.**


	2. A Sinking Feeling

Divinity and the Devil's Luck

Chapter 1: Inconsistent

 **Alright, so this is the first official chapter for the fic. I hope those of you out there who read this enjoy it, because I'm pretty much making this up as I go along… so it's not that much different from my other stories.**

 **Anywho! There's not a whole lot that I have to say at the moment, so here it is; enjoy!**

"Speech"

' _Thought/Reading'_

"Synthesized/Robotic Speech"

*Onomatopoeia* (sound effect)

 **(Author's Note)**

 **Xxxxxx Scene Change xxxxxx**

 **xxxxxx** Scene Break

 **I don't own the Fallout series, Koihime Musou, or any related products. Hell, I don't even own the original idea for this fic, props to drake202 for that.**

 **Now, without further ado… on with the show!**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

Roland and ED-E entered a small town, partially burnt-out by some sort of catastrophe, but it was obviously being rebuilt, if the sounds of hammering and the numerous robots rolling around cleaning the streets was any indication.

The robots looked like thick, metallic blue television screens right out of the 1950's, though out of each side protruded huge, beefy shoulder pads, from which descended a set of corrugated tubes that ended in three-fingered grasping implements, some of which held onto various tools. What was odd about these machines was the fact that they somehow managed to stay upright, given that they were set on a single wheel that looked more suited for a lawn mower than a top-heavy machine that stood about 6 feet tall, if not more. Several of the robots had cartoonish police officers depicted on their screens, serving as faces, while others apparently looked like construction workers, as demonstrated by the hardhats and gruff faces flashing on their screens.

The duster-clad gunman watched with some interest as these machines wheeled around the small settlement, repairing buildings, cleaning streets, and even giving everything a new paintjob. The ones displaying police officers were stood around or were set patrolling the area, likely as guards for whatever project was going on.

His examination came to an end, however, when one such robot broke from its position approached him. "Howdy, partner!" it called out in an inviting, male voice with what sounded had a stereotypical "old-west" drawl to it "Welcome to the new-and-improved Nipton! Or at least what _will_ be the new-and-improved Nipton! Haha!"

Roland turned to the A.I. with a small smirk. "Victor? What're you doing out here?" he inquired the machine, watching as the image of a construction worker was replaced by a cartoonish, friendly-looking cowboy. "I figured you'd be up at the Lucky 38."

The machine gestured to the rebuilding project going on before them. "Ol' Yes Man said he needed me here ta' make sure the securitrons are all workin' smooth." he explained "It wouldn't do ta have 'em smashing up the newly fixed town just 'cause of some bad programming."

Roland nodded. "Makes sense." he admitted "So how are the repairs going?"

The robot gave what could equate to a shrug as the pair started moving again, deeper into the town while they continued to talk. "'S comin' along. We managed ta' clear out all them dead dogs ya' left the town hall, 'n we got ta' work on fixin' up the building. Vicious lookin' things, them legion hounds."

The wanderer let out a gruff chuckle. "I know; I'm the one who killed them." he said, pulling a flask from his jacket "Not bad for a guy who was nothin' more than a courier a few days before." He then took a swig from the flask, grunting at the burning of the alcohol in his throat before he closed it up and stowed it back in his duster.

Victor gave a good-natured chuckle, in a strange show of personality for a robot, and bobbed briefly in something akin to a nod. "Yeah. Though you've come a long way from that time now, partner."

"Yeah… that I have." he said with a small frown on his features, thinking back on his whole adventure. The Mojave was never a fun place to live, but he'd seen things, and people, that made him sick. The legion, the bandits, the slavers… it made him strong in more than one way. He gave a heavy sigh at the thought _'Despite everythin' I've done, I still have a long way to go, making this place safe…'_

"Somethin' wrong?"

"Huh?" Roland snapped back to reality. "Oh, just thinking…" he replied.

Victor gave a small hum, knowing not to pry. Instead, he changed the subject. "So, where ya' headed?" he asked.

The ex-courier cringed a bit at the thought of his destination. "I'm going to see… a few friends. It's about those tribals to the south."

"Ah." Victor gave a grunt of understanding "Don't they speak some funny language? I heard nobody can understand 'em."

Roland nodded. "Yeah, that's why I'm headed out to see those friends of mine. I put in a request a few weeks ago to have 'em whip up something that translated that moon-speak of theirs into English. Apparently it's done now, so I'm off to pick it up before heading down to start negotiatin' with 'em." he explained with a chuckle. As he was speaking, they reached the edge of the semi-destroyed town and paused, before turning to eachother.

The robot gave a snort. "Heh. Well, I'll leave you to it then, partner. We both got jobs to do and no time to talk."

Roland grunted "Right you are. Have a good one."

"You too, partner." the robot replied, turning around and wheeling off back into town.

The young man turned back to the remaining robot. "C'mon Eddie. Let's get goin'." he beckoned, and the robot made a beeping sound as it fell in line behind him. Then, they both continued on their way, out of town.

Eventually, they came upon an old drive-in; a parking lot set in front of a huge projector screen, though devoid of functioning cars or an actual projector to display the images.

What set this drive-in apart was what looked like a satellite in the center of it, which sported several "scars" where it had been damaged, then welded back together. The body of the machine had apparently been repurposed, with many parts having been cut off and reassembled in a different position, while some random scrap- likely from nearby car husks- had been attached to it on odd places. It was still obviously a satellite, but now it stood up on a platform of metal, which had been tethered to the broken asphalt of the area. Several instruments protruded from it, one of which was pointed at the projector screen, while the other was at an almost ninety degree angle to it, facing towards an empty spot right in front of the machine.

ED-E gave a beeping sound and floated over to the object, inspecting it curiously, before he then turned to the courier. While he wasn't exactly speaking any known language, Roland seemed to understand what he was saying and interoperated the series of electronic sounds as though the machine were speaking plain English.

Roland sighed "We're here because the transport… thing… in my Pip-Boy only works on one target; the guy holding it. That means, we need to use the satellite teleporter to bring us both there."

"Baby don't hurt me~!" sang the robot.

The courier stepped up to the satellite and stood in front of it. "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt." he reassured, only to pause. "Wait. _Can_ you even feel pain? You're an eyebot."

ED-E simply gave a beep that, to Roland at least, sounded nervous.

The man gave his companion a dry look. "Oh, quit your worryin'." he said, walking over to the former satellite and activated it, causing a blue energy to charge up in the implement on the front. He then fell back to stand next to the eyebot. "Next stop; The Sink."

*Beep*

With one last beep out of ED-E, the satellite fired a blue beam of unknown energy at the pair, enveloping them in a luminescent flash, into which they disappeared.

 **Xxxxxx Sink Balcony xxxxxx**

The pair reappeared on a balcony, which sat atop a large white dome in the center of a massive crater, the rock walls of which appeared impregnable and precarious, as though they were a prison specifically meant to hold and conceal all entities held inside. Within the crater itself was a complex, expansive facility that was comprised of numerous varied buildings, several of which looked like smaller white domes. The parts that weren't connected directly had entrances that exposed them to the mostly barren, open terrain that comprised the majority of the facility's floor.

Roland turned to ED-E with a small smirk "Now was that so bad?"

*Beep*

The courier just scoffed a little and turned towards the entrance to the building. "Told you." he said as he descended into the building known as The Sink.

The trip down was rather uneventful, aside from the light switches trying to get into his pants and the toaster hurling passing threats at him… The Sink was always an odd place.

Eventually, they came to an elevator and descended to the lower floors of the building, where, upon exiting, they were greeted by the disturbing image of a floating robotic snow globe with three mechanical arms hanging from its base. What made said image disturbing was the fact that each arm held a monitor on it, with the two monitors at the top showing recorded images of human eyes and the one beneath them displaying a human mouth; together, they made some strange, distorted mockery of a human face. To complete this bizarre and grotesque display, the apparent fish bowl at the top held a human brain (at least it appeared human) suspended in liquid that was presumably to preserve the organ.

"Afternoon doctor O- err, 0." said the courier with a tip of his hat.

"Ah! Good afternoon, my friend. Good to see you again." said the floating preservation jar in a masculine voice. "You, by any chance, haven't seen an old Mr. Handy floating around the building, would you? It might be on fire."

The courier lifted a brow in confusion. "No… why?"

"Oh! No reason!" the apparent "doctor" replied. "Anyways, I assume you're here for that translator you ordered." he said, rapidly changing the subject.

"Uhh… yeah." Roland replied _'I have a feeling I don't want to know.'_

The doctor floated backwards a bit "Right then, follow me. Dala should be finished uploading the data onto it now." he explained as he turned and hovered away, leaving Roland and ED-E to follow behind. He paused, however, and addressed the two "By the way, try not to touch anything in the laboratory. Dr. Klein's in the middle of something very delicate." he warned, before floating off again.

The gunslinger turned to his robotic companion. "Delicate?"

In response, the eyebot played a clip of funeral music.

"Yeah… I've got a bad feeling about this too."

 **Xxxxxx**

The trio arrived in a large laboratory area, where numerous machines dotted various work tables across its expanse, though the far end remained barren, save for a large observatory telescope that peered out through the ceiling and into the sky above. That… and the sparking ring-shaped machine that was the current attention of another preserved brain.

Roland shied away from the obviously unstable machine, turning instead to Doctor 0 for directions. "So, where's Doctor Dala?"

Before the floating brain could respond, another of his kind hovered up to them from nearby. "Right here!" called the obviously feminine voice "And just 'Dala' will do… No need for formalities."

Roland could have sworn he saw one of the recorded eyes on her screens winking at him.

Doctor 0 sighed. "If you're going to do that _breathing_ thing, take it out of the lab."

"D-Don't be ridiculous! This is a professional transaction!" said the apparently flustered Dala, turning to 0 with what Roland assumed would be an outrageous look, had their screens the capacity to display emotions outwardly.

"Well you could have fooled me." 0 replied with what sounded like a verbal rolling of his non-existent eyes.

Roland simply stood there with a deadpan look as he watched the two bicker. _'If it's not the light switches trying to undress me, it's the brain in a jar. Is it too much to ask that find a woman with an actual body who isn't either a lesbian or more abrasive than sandpaper?'_ he mused.

Suddenly, both brains were broken from their argument when a beep came from Roland's side, drawing everyone's attention to ED-E, who had remained silent until then.

"Huh? Who's this?" asked Dala.

Roland snapped in realization. "That's right!" he said, before turning to 0 "I was wondering if you could take a look at Eddie here. He's been actin' weird since our last trip to Helios-1. We hooked him up to a computer an' he nearly shorted out, but when we got him workin' again, he started acting up and playing audio clips from what I can assume is some sorta pre-war database."

Doctor 0 floated up to ED-E. "Audio clips?" he asked.

"Yeah; music, radio shows, some stuff I'm guessin' came outta some sort of television programs." explained the courier "I was wonderin' if you could take a look at him. Y'know, make sure he's still workin' alright."

"Ah, I see." the doctor hummed. "Very well. Come with me and I'll check your systems." he beckoned the smaller robot. Rather than follow, however, ED-E turned silently to the courier.

Roland shrugged "What? The guy might be a bit funny in the brain, but he ain't dangerous."

The eyebot hesitated momentarily, before slowly floating after the disembodied doctor.

Roland soon found himself alone with an apparently excited Dala. "Come along now. I just finished the-"

"Ah! You're here just in time!" The female brain was interrupted by another voice, this one obviously male. The third brain-bot, who had previously been working on the sparking portal, approached the pair.

"What do you want, Klein?" asked Dala with an annoyed tone.

"Oh! I was just wondering if our friend here was willing to help me with my new-"

"Is it that sparking, unstable-looking rig over there?" Roland interjected.

"Why, yes it is." replied Klein.

The courier just gave him a dry look. "Sorry, but I'm a bit busy. Got a wasteland to run, y'know."

The doctor paused. "Oh! Right, I forgot about that!" he said, as though just recalling the whole situation. "Well, when you have some free time, I'd like your assistance in some tests to see if my machine is working."

Dala huffed. "Well… why can't you have one of the skinvelopes do it? If you need a lab rat, they'd probably be willing enough. Or too stupid to resist."

"No, no. I need someone with a whole brain _and_ body, you see." Klein replied. "I've got to study how it affects people as a whole, so the lobotomites aren't going to cut it."

"Uh-huh…" grunted an annoyed Roland. "Well, either way, I'm kinda preoccupied." he said, before turning to Dala "Ya' mind bringing me to that translator?"

The feminine brain perked up. "Oh! Alright!" she said happily, before floating in the presumed direction of said device.

"See ya 'round." Roland called back to Klein as he walked off, waving over his shoulder. Once the courier was away from Klein, he turned to Dala. "So, what exactly _is_ he making?"

"Eh" grunted the hovering cyborg "He said something about a wormhole; I think maybe it's a teleportal, but that's not important now. Come along!"

Roland glanced suspiciously over at the half-made machine. _'I have a feeling that I really don't want to be involved in that.'_

The courier followed Dala to the other side of the facility, where there was sat a rather small computer board and several wires. Beside it was another machine, this one taking the form of a thin metallic collar with small points protruding from the inside at one end.

"Alright, so what am I lookin' at?" asked Roland curiously.

"Oh, just a little project." said Dala. "The board is an attachment for your pip-boy, which should translate all spoken words into a signal the collar can understand, which it then inputs into your brain through your spinal cord. It should then work with your vocal implants to let you instinctively speak the language." she explained.

Roland nodded. "So, it lets me speak and understand other languages without having to actually learn them." he simplified

"Exactly… or it could overload your brain and cause a blow-out." Dala said chipperly.

The courier looked up at her with an owlish look "Sorry, what?"

If the woman could have waved him off, she would have. "Oh, no worries. There's only a fourteen percent chance of that happening… or was it forty?"

The male gave her a dry look. "You know what… I've had worse odds." he said, before turning to the collar and picking it up, examining the whole setup more carefully. "Looks kinda like a more compact bomb collar." he mused.

"Just slip it around your neck with the spikes at the back and the collar should activate." Dala explained "Oh, and no need to worry; if it fails, your implants should buffer anything dangerous."

Roland hesitated only for a moment, before doing as instructed. He lifted the collar to his neck, pressing the pointy bits against the back where his spine was; then there was pain.

As expected, the points extended into spikes, which drove themselves into his brainstem with the sound of piercing flesh and a crack of popped joints, and the collar itself snapped closed around Roland's neck, locking in place. As that happened, the male cringed, but didn't cry out in pain beyond a few grunts as he stumbled forward and leaned on the table. He heard his heart beating in his ears, felt the blood pounding in his head, and his body began to go numb as the collar installed itself in his brain. White spots flashed in his eyes and vaguely, he heard himself muttering under his breath in a language he didn't understand, but that was quickly stifled by the influx of garbled information being unnaturally crammed into his brain as the collar seemingly fed it into his memory.

Then; just as suddenly as it started, the pain stopped. The pounding and swelling in his brain subsided instantly, the jumbled mutterings fled his mind, and his full faculties returned to him with only a few fading spots left to swim in his vision. When he recovered, he noticed that his pip-boy had been removed from his arm while he was out, and that it had been placed on the table… along with everything he'd been carrying in it.

Laid out before him was numerous weapons, the first of which was a 12 gauge hunting shotgun with a synthetic stock detailed in a desert camouflage pattern. Next to it sat a black, thick-bodied, revolver with a wooden handle. After that came a grenade rifle with a star pattern on a blue field imprinted on the side. All of which came with the appropriate ammunition.

Alongside those were the weapons he'd looted from the bandits; a worn submachine gun, and a sniper rifle that looked in such piss-poor condition that it probably couldn't pierce a beer can from a meter away. Of course, he still had that blocky silver gun at his hip and the knife he kept in his boot, too.

Really, the only thing that seemed out of place was a sturdy-looking slingshot comprised of a nicely-carved wooden handle, a collapsible frame made of black synthetic material, and strong medical tubing.

"Huh? What?" asked a confused and numb-minded Roland as he looked over the veritable armory.

Dala floated up next to him. "Sorry about that. While you were having your little 'episode' I decided to upgrade your pip-boy…" she explained "Unfortunately, it unloaded everything you were carrying." she explained, pausing briefly to eye up the weapons. "You like to travel light, don't you? The pip-boy should reduce the weight of this load to well below your carrying capacity."

The courier sighed. "Light load means light on my feet." he said, re-equipping the pip-boy on his left wrist and snatching up his slingshot, folding it up and stowing it in his pocket. He then went about reloading his shotgun and checking its condition, before nodding in satisfaction and stowing it in his pack, then grabbed up each box of ammunition that was sat on the table and slipped it into the various pouches on the sides of the bag. He did the same for every gun he had present, each one getting a satisfied response, sans the bandit weapons, which were so worn and degraded that he almost debated tossing them in the garbage. It should be noted that, as he put everything away in the bag, it didn't grow any heavier or bulge to contain the contents, which by all reason should not have been able to fit.

Once he was done, he turned to the hovering brain. "So, now that we know this collar won't kill me, I can talk other languages?" he asked.

"Well, yes, but it only works on Chinese. Which the language those tribals are speaking, before you ask." she explained. "Any further languages will require an upgrade. So feel free to stop by."

The man nodded "Alright then; looks like this thing's getting a field test." he said, before reaching up to feel the collar around his neck. "Hope it's water proof."

"Yep!" chirped the woman "Totally water proof… just don't adjust it too much. It might give you a nasty shock if you expose those spikes directly to any liquid while they're still in your neck."

The man quickly withdrew his hand from his neck and nodded "I'll… keep that in mind." he said, before turning back to his pip-boy. He scrolled through the information until he got to a screen labeled _'Perks'_ and checked the newest options on the list.

' _Stay-at-home Tourist: As long as the translation collar is equipped, you can speak Chinese fluently.'_

' _Basically Bilingual: You have a basic, instinctive grasp of Chinese, but without the translation collar equipped, speaking it is difficult.'_

The male hummed and nodded. "That seems 'bout right." he said, switching off the pip-boy screen. "Thanks for the help." he said, turning back to Dala… only to start and step backwards as he found himself face-to-monitor with the feminine cyborg. "Gah!"

"You're quite welcome." she purred "Now… about my payment."

"Uhh… I…" he trailed off, before sighing, getting a giggle out of the preserved brain. "Fine, I guess I could spare a few-"

*Crash!*

Both of them turned around to see ED-E darting away from Doctor 0 in what one could assume was a panicked state.

"What the-!? 0, what did you do!?" called Roland as he and the other brain converged on the disturbance.

"I tried to access his memory banks and he suddenly panicked and began fleeing! I don't see what the issue is!" replied the doctor.

The cowboy looked over at the doctor with a clearly disbelieving look. " _How_ were you planning on doin' that?"

"Well with the interface spike of course." he replied simply, gesturing over to a large metal spike hanging from a computer by a cable. "It is far more direct than any normal cable. Far faster."

The man placed a hand to his face and sighed. "Oh, for the love of-" he then turned up to the frantic robot. "Eddie! Calm down, will ya'!" he cried, though it was to no avail, as the mechanical companion continued to dart about in panic, as though he were being chased. The courier growled in annoyance, watching as the eyebot made for the exit to the room, only to balk as the door flew open from the other side.

"What _is_ all the racket!?" called yet another voice as two more floating brain cases entered the room.

"Wait, don't come any-!" Roland called, though was cut off when ED-E, upon noticing the two scientists, darted back into the room… and right into Dr. Klein's unstable machine.

*Clang!* *Crash!* *Bang!*

Numerous parts were knocked free from their place on the ring, their already precarious positions loosened by the impact of the smaller, sputnik-looking machine at full force. This only caused the sparking to increase in ferocity and frequency as numerous wires touched metal parts Roland was sure they weren't supposed to be touching, some of which even fused to the outer shell from the sheer energy melting them together.

Fortunately, the impact seemed to have knocked ED-E out of his apparent terror at the threat of impalement; something for which Roland would be talking to both him and Doctor Zero. That said, they had other problems at hand, as the machine began to shudder and rumble, smoke coming off it at random places and the odd spark of strange, non-electrical energy sputtering out from the open air at the center of the ring.

*Spark* *Whoosh* *Sputter*

All present began to back away, including the seemingly mad Doctor Klein, who surely knew the dangers of his own invention. "What did you do?" asked one of the newly-arrived brains, turning his monitors to the mad researcher.

"Science!" cried the madman, who cackled loudly.

"Well… that's not-" started Roland.

*Crack!*

Suddenly, a massive explosion of energy, like white lightning that let loose a boom of thunder…

And everything turned white…

 **Xxxxxx ? xxxxxx**

The sky was blue, the clouds were thin and white, the wind was cool and refreshing, and the sun was at the peak of it's afternoon climb. These were the sensations that Roland woke to when his eyes snapped open with a gasp as he returned to the land of the living.

"Gah. Ugh… what happened?" he groaned out in mixed confusion and annoyance as he sat up, putting a hand to his head while he used the other to support his- "Huh? What's with the ground?" he asked as he looked down at the hand he was using to hold himself up…

And there was green.

There were numerous strands of some sort of weird, green substance under his hand. "Wha-" looking around, he noticed that there was more of the stuff all around him. "What is this? Who tha' hell puts a carpet outside?" he grumbled, sighing before looking up at the sky.

Suddenly, he paused "Wait a minute… D-Did that explosion blow the top off o' The Sink?" he asked himself. "Shit! I hope not! I liked that place!" he cried, standing up and looking around in panic. His eyes widened, however, at what lay before him.

Rather than the rocky walls and barren terrain of the crater that the Big Empty sat in, Roland found himself staring at a huge field of green, bordered by what looked like a random smattering of trees, though they were different to the sickly pines he'd seen from the grove in the Mojave. Further than that was a mountain chain, far off into the distance; it most certainly wasn't the crater that housed the Think tank, since not only was it the wrong color, but it was much further away, far larger, looked undamaged, and the sides were crawling with greenery. "Wha-What the fuck…?" Roland managed to gasp out as he beheld the scenery.

' _Everything's so… alive. Those trees, that mountain, and the ground… this isn't a carpet at all! But, then what is i- Wait!'_ he paused, recognition filling his eyes _'G-Grass!? This is what grass looks like without the radiation and Mojave sun killin' it off!'_ His head started to spin as his mind drew more and more conclusions, helping him piece together a vague picture of what was going on; and he came to one conclusion…

"Whatever that nutjob did… it created life…" he muttered, astonished. He didn't know how, but it was the only logical explanation. _'Heh… unless the explosion actually hit me so hard it knocked me back in time.'_

Slowly, though, his eyes widened. "Wait…" he muttered to himself as realization apparently dawned on him, before pulling the revolver from his hip. "Damn it! I knew this grass looked familiar." he grunted, warily eyeing his environment "I hope I don't run into more shit like in vault 22. If the trees start tryin' to eat me, I'm letting the toaster set off another nuke."

Making sure the gun was loaded, he flicked the chamber shut and began a slow, steady march towards the nearest bunch of foliage thick enough to hide an enemy, keeping his weapon aimed at the bushes in case they came alive and decided to use him as fertilizer. As he approached, his muscles tensed and he prepared himself jump away from whatever might emerge from the brush. Slowly he drew closer…

When he was five meters away, he paused, searching for movement, but found none, so he decided to get even closer…

At four meters, the foliage remained still and quiet.

As he approached three meters, suddenly the brush moved and his gun flew up, aimed directly at the rustling plant life. He stood there for a tense second… only to relax marginally as he realized it was only a light breeze.

He closed the last two meters rather quickly, not lowering his gun for even a moment, knowing that if he did, then whatever might be present would likely see it as a sign of weakness and attack. Upon reaching about the six foot point, he slowly bent down and scooped a rock up from the ground by his foot, not taking his gun off the target, before giving the stone an underhand toss, causing it to land in the bush. He quickly resumed his stance with the gun firmly in his grasp and aimed directly at the potential threat, managing to get his free hand up to the weapon before the rock even struck the plants.

It was all proven pointless, however, when the leaves of the bushes sat still, allowing the rock to pass through them harmlessly and without retaliation. This caused the gunslinger to let out a sigh of relief as he holstered the weapon, though didn't prevent him from keeping his trigger finger within quick-draw range of the armament in case of emergency.

"Huh…" he muttered as he allowed himself to relax marginally "I guess the universe ain't out ta' kill me here. For a change." He then turned around to look at the surrounding landscape "Doesn't exactly explain where 'here' is, though." he muttered to himself "I mean, I must've been blown clear outta the Big Empty, seeing as nothing 'round here looks even remotely similar to that place…"

He stood there for a moment, pondering. "I suppose I should take a step back an' think about what I'll do next." he said. "First off; take stock."

And that he did, turning to his pip-boy and scrolling through the list of items it detected on his person. Aside from the weapons, he was carrying various drugs, specifically items listed as "Med-X," "Psycho," and "Jet;" ten of each, and three IV bags full of a chemical listed as "rad-away." His food stores were limited to a couple of gecko stakes (Leftovers from the trip to the Big MT) and a couple bottles of various beverages. He also had a bottle of whiskey on-hand for when his flask ran dry, but that was it for his alcohol reserves.

He frowned in thought. "Hmm… between this and the supplies I left on Eddie, I should have enough for a few days." he muttered.

"Wait. Where _is_ Eddie?" he asked himself upon realization.

"Err… Eddie!" he called out into the surrounding planes, only to frown upon finding no answer, which drew a sigh from him. "Great. Either I've been blown clear outta the Mojave, or I'm gonna need to fix him again… probably both." he grumbled, withdrawing one of the gecko steaks from his pack, the cooked meat still warm as he bit into it.

"So, I've got no damn clue where I am, the world's covered in… green grass that I'm still pretty sure is going to try and kill me at some point, and Eddie's been blasted to God-knows-where with most of my food and spare ammo on him..." said the courier as he took stock of the situation.

Eventually, he just heaved out a sigh. "Ain't no way I'm gonna figure out where I am just sitting 'round here." he said, before turning to one of the mountains a bit further off. He nodded to himself _'Right. I'll make my way to those mountains. If it ain't part of the Big MT, then it'll at least give me a better view of where I am and I can go from there.'_ the man contemplated to himself.

His eyes then turned to a nearby tree and his mind started to go foggy. "But first; I'm beat. That explosion must've taken more outta me more than I thought." he muttered, moving over to the tree and sitting down in the shade, leaning against it and holding his pack at his side, a hand on his revolver just underneath.

"Guess nobody's gonna mind me here. They'd have come by already if I was trespassing." he grumbled as he leaned back in the shade, pulling his hat down over his face.

 **Xxxxxx**

Roland awoke quietly to the sound of three voices, males from the sound of it. He didn't flinch or move as he heard them approaching him, talking to eachother without any attempt at being subtle, apparently showing no desire to sneak up on him.

"…o's that?" asked one man as they came into hearing range of the supposedly sleeping cowboy.

"I dunno." answered another "But he looks weird and he's wearing strange clothes, and…" he then trailed off and muttered something too softly for Roland to hear from the distance that was between them. There was something… off about the way they were speaking, but he couldn't really put his finger on it.

"You're right. They look expensive. And that bag's probably full of something we could sell." said a third male contemplatively as the three began to approach closer.

It was at that point Roland realized what was strange about these men's voices. The words they were speaking were in a completely different language, but he could understand them as though they were speaking straight English, so it took him a moment to realize it. So, logically, these men must have been from that new tribe he was supposed to meet up with. _'At least I'm in friendly territory.'_ he thought to himself

"What should we do with him?" asked one.

"Wake him up. Then we'll strip him down and take the bag."

' _Or maybe not.'_ thought the thoroughly annoyed cowboy. Apparently this new culture had their own raiders.

"Hey fatso. Wake him up." ordered one man, presumably the leader.

"Uhh, okay." replied the deeper voice of the one assumedly called Fatso, as he approached the sleeping courier, as indicated by the rumbling of the ground and the heavy mouth breathing that could be heard as he moved.

"H-Hey you… wake up." he said without much confidence or force.

Roland just lay there, hand rested on his gun. _'Should I shoot first? No… don't wanna waste the ammo if I can talk my way outa this.'_ he thought, removing his hand from the trigger reluctantly.

"Hey." a large hand grabbed his shoulder and began to shake him.

Roland growled in annoyance. "Yeah, yeah… I'm up." he grunted, lifting his hat out of his face so he could look up at the men.

There were a short, scrawny man, an average sized one with a lean build and small moustache, and a tall one with a large gut that poked out from under his shirt. All of them were wearing blue shirts with some sort of leather armor around their midsections, barring the fat one, whose armor rested above his gut. Around their heads and necks they had on yellow ascots and turbines, completing the outfits and seemingly denoting them as some organized group.

"Well, you're a light sleeper." said the apparent leader.

"Kinda have to be out here." Roland replied, attempting to remain civil. "So can I help you?"

"You can start by handing over your valuables." said the shorter one.

The brunette looked over the other three and sighed. "Sorry to say, but I ain't got nothin' like that, unless you think gecko steaks are worth something 'round here."

The sarcastic remark annoyed the short man. "Don't fuck with me! I'll kill you!" he screeched, causing Roland to turn his blue eyes towards him in a deadpan look.

"You remind me of my toaster." he said plainly, confusing the lot.

"Y-Your what?" asked the tall one, clearly befuddled.

The midget seethed at him for a moment, before suddenly exploding. "You want me to slit your throat!? I'll mess you up!" he cried out with a red face, before descending into a rant that consisted mostly of just hurling various threats.

Roland, of course, used this opportunity to scope out the situation. _'Okay, so we got a talking gecko, an arrogant jackass, and a fish-faced super mutant with a beer gut. All of 'em wearing shitty armor around arguably the least-vital part of their torsos, and yellow target- I mean bandanas on their heads. They seem to be carrying swords, and don't have any guns to speak of. Huh, like the legion assassins, only dumber and there's less of 'em.'_ he mused, almost entertained by the image.

The duster-clad man got no more time to think as, once the short one finished his shouting, the leader stepped up to speak with him. "Hey pal, those are some nice clothes you got there." he said, obviously not as a compliment.

The courier nodded. "Suppose so. They keep the sun out at least." he replied as he stood, brushing off his duster while subtly hiding his weapon in the holster at his hip, which was soon covered up by the folds of the coat, ready for a quick-draw. His bag fell lightly to the side as he stood.

"Yeah, they look it. You must be a smart man then. So you must know what's going on… and that it'd be _smart_ of you to just drop what you have and leave it here." the bandit said pointedly in a threatening tone.

Roland just sighed and shook his head. "Now, y'see I like to think of myself as a clever guy, so you got that right." he said, pulling his flask from his coat "But, I'm also pretty damn stubborn too. So, I don't think I'll be doin' anything like that." He then tilted his head back and took a drink.

"'Stubborn' my ass!" cried the small one "When the boss says drop something, you drop it!"

The courier just turned an almost uncaring eye at the short bandit, then to the big one, who tried to look threatening, but just ended up looking dopey. "Yeah, take 'em off."

This caused the man to sigh. "Look; while I appreciate the sentiment, I don't swing that way."

"W-What are you trying to imply here!?" said the midget, his eye twitching. His hand slowly drifted towards his weapon as he stepped forward.

The Boss, however, held out his hand. "Hold on there, Short-stuff." he said, before turning to Roland again. "Now, don't go getting too mouthy. You don't want to die yet, do you?" he said, drawing his sword and holding it up to the man's throat.

"Shall I stab you in the throat with this?" he asked, before looking over to his shoulders menacingly "Or would you prefer that I sliced your arms off?"

Roland didn't flinch, only tilting his head back when the blade's tip pressed against his neck. He gave a stern glare at the man across from him as the two others gloated, though they were tuned out by the gunslinger.

"Oh? You still got some guts in you?" said the man, who then shrugged. "Oh well, resist all you want. Killing an unarmed man will only take a second."

Roland, of course, realized his mistake a moment earlier. _'I shouldn't have let them get so close. This guy can kill me before I can even draw That Gun.'_ he thought _'Looks like I'll have to bluff my way outta this after all.'_

"You wanted my clothes?" he asked, thinking quickly.

The man nodded. "Yeah. What? Going to cooperate?" he asked mockingly.

Roland shook his head slightly, careful not to pierce his skin on the blade. "No. but if you stab me, blood'll cover the shirt and duster. Now I may not be a merchant, but I figure there wouldn't be many people willing to buy or wear somethin' covered in blood. Not to mention the questions that'd be asked if ya' tried pawning it off." he said, and the trio paused. He'd obviously at least gotten them to hesitate, which was something to count in his favor. _'But I don't think they'd give much thought about the clothes if I pull a gun on 'em… I'll need to think of something else.'_ he reasoned, looking around himself subtly as the trio started to mutter amongst each other.

His eyes then returned to the trio as an idea formed. "Hey, you." he said, breaking the three from their discussion.

"Who the hell do you think your talking to? Addressing me like that?" asked the short one.

Roland shook his head. "Not you; the middle guy." he said, gesturing to the boss. "You're in charge of the other two, right?"

The man nodded "You got that right. How can you tell?"

"You look the part." the cowboy shrugged.

This only caused the man to scowl. "What? You trying to flatter me into letting you go?" he asked.

"Not quite. Y'see, after some thinking, it turns out that I'm more smart than stubborn, and being unarmed and out numbered ain't exactly conducive to my health." he said, before putting his hands up in surrender. "The way I figure it; I'd rather not die for somethin' stupid, so I'll just take off my clothes and leave ya' to it."

This seemed to please the bandits. "Ha! I knew he'd crack eventually." gloated the short one.

The boss, however, wasn't so convinced. "What?" he asked in surprise "Are you planning something?" he glared suspiciously at the gunslinger.

"'Course not. Even if I was, it's not like I could do much, what with me being unarmed and all." Roland explained, hoping his tactic would work.

The man sneered "Huh… Fine." He then stepped back and sheathed his sword.

Roland just smirked. "Thanks." he said, before quickly drawing out That Gun and pistol-whipping the bandit leader on the head.

"Gah" the man stumbled back, his head bloodied.

"…But, I don't take kindly to bein' robbed." He said, putting some distance between them and holding his gun ready.

"Boss!" the two men cried in panic and confusion as the courier put some distance between them, his gun held out in front of him and his pupils narrowed to pinpricks in the dying light of the sun as the adrenaline coursed through him in preparation for combat.

"Shit! You tricked me!" said the lead man.

"That's not fair!" the others cried.

Roland just shrugged "And I suppose attacking an unarmed man is?"

They shut up at that one, the fat one realizing he was right and the short one unable to formulate an answer.

The gunslinger then smirked "'Sides; I call it strategy." he said, before taking aim. "Now drop your swords and walk away."

The leader tisked. "I'm not letting you go that easy. I'll get you for that!"

The midget grinned menacingly. "Bad move! Now I get to cut you up! Ready Fatso?!"

The big man nodded. "O-Okay! I'll do it!"

Their reactions confused the cowboy. "Wait… you're really going to fight me?" he asked. _'These idiots do realize I have a gun, right? There's no way they'll get to me before I shoot them down.'_

"The boss is telling me to… sorry." said the lumbering giant as he drew his sword and rushed forward.

Roland was caught off guard by the apology, so he hesitated in shooting the large man. "Wha-" unfortunately, this allowed him to close the admittedly short gap rather swiftly. "Gwah!" the gunman shouted, dodging backwards away from the blade, before backpedaling further as the big man pursued him with more sloppy attacks. "Shit! How many times am I going to let that happen today?" he asked himself aloud, his eye twitching in irritation.

"Heheheh! What happened to your nerve!? Huh!?" jeered the short one.

The boss gave a lazy wave "Just try not to damage his clothes. We don't want them to lose their value."

The large man nodded. "Al-Alright. I'll do my best…" he said hesitantly, before turning to Roland "Y-You better surrender… I think…" He then swung his sword upwards and brought it down in an overhead strike, and that's when the gunslinger made his move.

Sidestepping out of the way, Roland then rushed forward and leapt up to meet the big guy face-to-face "Sorry." he said sarcastically, before bringing up his pistol and smacking the man's cheekbone with the side of the barrel, sending him reeling.

"Gaarrgghh!" the portly man cried, swinging his free arm wildly. The meaty limb impacted Roland's ribs by sheer chance and sent the cowboy flying, though it was without his gun, which had come free of his grip.

"Oof!" Roland landed in some bushes a little distance away. "Right…" he croaked out breathlessly "So he's strong. Guess those arms ain't just for show." he mused to himself briefly as he caught his breath.

Lowering his hand to his hip, he found himself deprived of his weapon. "Ah shit…" he muttered, turning to his pip-boy briefly, only to cringe as he saw that the screen had popped loose, leaving the device unusable. "Damn it all. I hope nothing's broken too bad." he muttered, before looking around for That Gun. From the bush, he saw it sitting a few meters away from him; too far for him to reach before the bandits got to him, though they were luckily preoccupied with making sure their fat friend was okay. He sighed "Looks like I have to find another way to-" he paused, feeling something uncomfortable beneath his body, so he reached down and extracted it, only to be met with the very same rock he'd thrown into the bushes earlier.

"Huh, at least now I know the shrubs won't kill me." he said as a smirk played across his face, his hand reaching down to a holster on his leg. When he stood up, he had his slingshot in-hand, the rock in it's harness. "Right, time for round two." He said, gripping the slingshot tightly in his hand.

The boss sighed and glanced around the plains, paranoid. "Don't have too much fun here. Those imperial dogs are still chasing us and we need to hurry up."

"Yeah! Hurry it up fatso!" crowed the midget.

"Right." the big guy said with a nod, before turning to Roland. "You can't get away." he said in a dull, pitiless drawl, something of a change from his typical demeanor.

Roland snorted. "Bring it." he grunted aiming at the giant's eye, intending to blind him. The big man rushed, the gunman drew the slingshot taught. _'One shot… gotta make it count.'_ he thought, his eyes turning sharp and the pupils adjusting slightly, something like a pair of binocular lenses.

They were about to let loose their own assaults-

"Hold it!"

Suddenly, a fifth person appeared on the scene, crying out for them to stop and bringing a halt to the conflict.

She had long, black hair done up in a ponytail with a single long bang falling down the right of her face, beside her amber-colored eye, and her delicate eyebrows were set in a stern expression as she glared at the bandits.

She had on a sleeveless green shirt, which was highlighted with gold and faded to white as it approached her collar, from which hung a white and red tie. Over her arms she wore detached white sleeves with green cuffs and golden highlights to match her shirt. She had on a black skirt and leggings below her waist that descended into a set of green boots, obviously meant for combat.

"Huh? Who the hell are you?" asked the leader as they all turned to face her with looks of confusion on their faces.

"Get lost; we're busy." grunted the midget.

The large man fell back in step with his allies. "It's not good to bother others."

As they spoke to her, they moved to surround her, and a small, dark smirk crossed the leader's face. "Oh well, we might as well get you too. We might be able to make a bit of money selling you as a slave…" he threatened "But not before we have our way with you, of course."

"Heheh, sounds like fun. Right Fatso?" asked the short one

"Uhh, yeah. But I'd like it if she didn't fight back." replied the oaf.

"Stand down boors!" replied the woman, not even flinching in the face of such threats. "How dare thou ruffians threaten to lay hands on this noble!? Know thine place!"

"What'd you say?" gritted out the head bandit.

"If thou wilt flee now, I shall allow thee to escape, however if thou intend to fight… No mercy shall be shown!" she then drew a long, ornate spear with a red shaft and black blade. "Now flee, or feel the bite of my Green Dragon Crescent Blade!" she cried, brandishing the weapon with expert skill.

"Grrr… What a brazen woman." growled the leader "Hey, Short-stuff!"

"Yes sir!" he said, before reaching for his weapon. "Hey Fat-"

*Whack!* *Crunch!*

"Gargh!" suddenly the short male collapsed to the ground, holding his bloodied head, a dent in his skull having formed right between his eyes.

"Wh-What!?" called the leader, who turned around to find Roland standing there, snatching his gun off the ground and stowing his now-empty slingshot in its holster.

"Buddy, you broke my pip-boy. You'd better believe I'm gonna take it outta yer hide." he growled, aiming the gun at the man's head from several meters out. He was done playing games.

The only woman present seemed to sense this and smirked. "Ohh, so it's a fight then, eh?" she said, readying the spear. "Have at thee!"

The boss turned to his two underlings, the short one just standing up with a sore head and a snarl on his face. "Fatso, Short-stuff! Kick their asses!" he barked, and both other men nodded in unison.

"Right!"

The woman kicked off the ground, moving forward and was interrupted by the fat one, while the short one charged at Roland, the boss readying his sword but staying in place. "Hiyaa!" she cried as she brought down the weapon with enough force and speed to fell the fat man in one strike.

"S-Shit…" he grunted out as he fell to the ground.

"Alright, who's next?" she asked, facing the leader of the group.

In return, he brought up his own blade, looking slightly more nervous than he had before. "I guess that's-"

*Bang!* "Aaaggh!"

Both remaining warriors turned in surprise, their hearts jumping as a sound not unlike the crack of thunder echoed out from the area where Roland was engaging the short man. They both turned to see the midget, his back up against a tree and a huge chip in the blade of his sword that left cracks along its length. Behind him the tree clearly had a hole in it and there was smoke rising from within, just as it was from the barrel of Roland's weapon.

"Che. Looks like it didn't break after all. Waste of a shot." he muttered, before aiming at the short man's face, which went deathly pale as he was caught in the crosshairs.

"S-Short-stuff…" wheezed out the boss, his eyes the size of saucers and his own face draining of color.

Suddenly, the short man dropped his broken weapon and scampered away from Roland, who just gave him a bored look. "Dumbass…" he said, before lowering his weapon, though he kept it ready just in case.

"Where do you think you're going!?" called the boss as his shorter underling fled.

"T-There's no way I can fight these two! A freak of a woman who can take down Fatso in one go and a guy who conjures invisible lightning! How can I fight that!?" the short man returned.

The strange woman was suddenly snapped from her stupor upon hearing the short man's declaration, and her sharp eyes turned to the man, who froze in place as though his very blood had chilled to ice. "Didst thou… just call me a freak…?" she asked in a slow, deliberate tone.

The short man swallowed hard. "W-What? No! It was… just a joke! You see? I'm smiling! Hahahaha!" he stuttered out in a panic, obviously forcing a grin.

Roland, seeing what was about to happen, shook his head and stepped back a bit, his hands up in mock surrender. "I ain't touching this one."

The woman charged forward with blinding speed. "No excuses!" she cried as she slammed the butt of her spear into the short man's gut so hard that it knocked him to the ground, unconscious.

"S-Short stuff?" stammered the leader, causing the two warriors to turn in his direction. "Ulp~!" he swallowed, his body shaking.

The woman readied her spear and Roland withdrew That Gun and took aim for his chest. "Now then…" the woman said "As thou art the last one, it shall be thee who decides what comes next. Wilt thou fight me, or escape with thine companions?"

"Shit…" sighed the man "I'll let you both go, this time." He gave them both a withering glare as he mover towards his allies' fallen forms, clearly not happy about the defeat.

"Hey, wake up!" he barked, giving them sharp kicks.

"Ouch!"

"Ahoo!"

They both stood up in turn.

"Come on, we're going." the ringleader said, grabbing the short one's broken sword and tossing it to his feet for him to pick up. With one last glare, the three retreated towards the nearest expanse of the sparse trees and disappeared into the forest.

Roland sighed and moved over to his bag, where he pulled it from the ground and hefted it up over his shoulder with ease, even as he re-holstered his weapon. "Damn raiders…"

"Whew…" the girl sighed, before turning to address him. "Art thou alright?" she asked, causing the cowboy to stop mid-step.

It took the gunslinger a moment to respond. "Yeah… Though I could've taken them." he said, allowing his hand to subtly fall limp at his side, readying himself to draw That Gun if he needed to.

"Ah, good. I'm glad to hear it." replied the woman with a genuine smile on her features, much to the contrast of her previous ferocity. Suddenly, though, her eyes snapped open in surprise. "Oh!" she cried "I've forgotten my manners. I have yet to introduce myself."

Roland's brow quirked in curiosity. "I… guess you have." he said, though he was ready to fight if she decided to get too close with that spear of hers.

Instead, the woman bowed at the hip. "My family name is Kan, and my first name is U. My common name, however, is Unchou, and I have travelled from Yuuzhuu to welcome you."

This only served to further confuse Roland. _'Huh… wasn't expectin' her whole life story.'_ he mused briefly. "Uhh…" he grunted.

"Oh, is there a problem?" the girl asked, tilting her head.

Roland's brows furrowed. "Could you… repeat your name? I didn't quite catch it all."

"My apologies." she bowed again. "Allow me to repeat. My name is Kan'U, though my common name is Unchou. I have travelled from-"

"Yes, from this Yoo-shoe place. I'm guessin' that's what your tribe's called." Roland inquired as he went through his ammo stores, realizing this girl was of no threat.

The woman seemed confused at the term. "Tribe?"

"Sorry, it's just I'm not used to the whole presentation ya' gave." he explained, further perturbing the woman. "Anyways, I take it your tribe sent you to come meet me." he muttered, before looking up at the sky. "I guess I really was blown right outta the Mojave, if I'm already at your territory."

"H-Hold on." the woman pleaded. "I-I know nothing of this place called the 'Mo-Have-Ay.'" she said, a blush of embarrassment on her face.

Roland looked at her with a raised brow. "What do you mean? Who hasn't heard of- wait…" he paused in thought as he gave it a little thought. He then snapped in realization "Oh, wait! You must have another name for it!" he said, before redirecting his attention to the girl in front of him. "The Mojave is what my people call the desert up north." he explained. "At least… it was a desert last time I checked." he added in afterthought, looking around at the green landscape surrounding them.

Unchou's brow went up **(1)**. "Up… north…?" she muttered in thought. "Ah! I see!" the woman then exclaimed "So that's what you call the heavens above, from which you descended." she declared, aiming a finger at him in realization.

Roland just looked at her in puzzlement. "Heavens above?" he asked "What the hell- oh, wait… The explosion." he muttered "Yeah, I guess it would look like I fell from heaven then." The male then turned to Kan'U. "Well, can you tell me where we are?" he asked.

The woman nodded. "We are in the Zhuo District of Yuuzhuu, as you can see by that mountain range." she then gestured over to the said rock formation with her spear. "A village lies only a little further west from here…" the woman paused for a moment as she looked at his expression. "Are you alright? You look a bit perplexed."

At that last bit Roland sighed. "Yeah. Just that I didn't understand a damn thing about what you just said." he replied, looking down in thought as he ruminated on the woman's words. _'Just where the hell am I? I know I'm south of the Mojave, but how far? And how do I get back to New Vegas? Agh! I wish Eddie was here at least! Then maybe I wouldn't have to keep my guard up so much with this woman.'_

"Uhm…" he was broken from his thoughts by the woman's voice. "Might you grace me with your name?" she asked, a new blush on her face, clearly she was feeling awkward about asking the question. "If thou wouldst."

The man glanced up at her. "Weren't you sent to meet me?" he asked.

Kan'U scratched her head. "I was not given your name or a description. Just the location where we were to meet." she replied awkwardly.

The gunslinger sighed. "Well, whoever sent you sounds vague as all hell…" he said, shaking his head. "Anyways, the name's Roland."

The spear maiden looked a bit confused. "Ro-Land? Huh… an odd name." the woman admitted "Though I suppose I should expect no less of a messenger from heaven."

Roland looked at her dryly. "You're really gonna keep callin' me that, huh?"

Kan'U, it seemed, was not expecting the sarcasm, as she appeared to be surprised by it. "W-Well, I only call you by your title! Are you not a messenger from heaven?" she asked in a panic, apparently concerned that she'd offended him.

The cowboy sighed "Well, I guess I've got enough nicknames as it is anyways, so why not add another? You can call me whatever you want." he said as he went for his flask, only to think better of it and pull his hand away.

Kan'U frowned. "Would you prefer I call you by something else?"

"Nah… just gonna take a while to get used to." Roland said as he shook his head, before looking around. "Now, you said there was a town west of here?" he asked, and the woman nodded.

"Yes, of course." she replied.

"Alright." the gunslinger grunted as he followed his internal compass and started down the path towards the village. "Thanks again for the backup earlier… I guess." he called back as he gave her a lazy wave and began to depart the area, going his own way. "I'd better stop at this new village and stock up …" he muttered to himself "Who knows; maybe Eddie decided to wait at the nearest populated center for me… he's a clever little-" he then paused mid-sentence as he realized something.

Turning around, he found himself looking at Kan'U who had taken it upon herself to follow after him as he walked. "Can I help you?" he asked.

The woman tilted her head. "I am fine, simply continue on your path and I shall stand vigilant." she said simply.

Roland's brow rose in confusion. "Okay…" he muttered _'So… she seems intent on following me?'_ he questioned. The male then grunted and turned to face forward again _'I suppose this isn't the first time I picked up a stray… still'_

"Hey… Kan'U, was it?" he asked over his shoulder.

The woman went a bit stiff at being addressed. "Y-Yes. That's right."

Disregarding her reaction, Roland continued. "I just realized I'm not too familiar with this place. Would you mind staying in front and leading me to this village?" he asked. _'Also means that you're not behind me the whole time.'_

"As you wish, milord. I shall defend you from anything that stands before us." the woman replied while bowing deeply, much to Roland's surprise.

"Wha-" he managed to grunt out as the woman passed him, before he just let out a sigh and followed her lead, presumably towards the village. _'"Milord?"'_

' _This is going to be one hell of a confusing road trip… I'm gonna need more whiskey.'_

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **And that's a wrap!**

 **(Editor's note) Wow; I knew that the first few chapters probably weren't my best work, but re-reading them now, some of that was just… bad. I completely left out plot points that came out of nowhere and I'm pretty sure some of the sentences weren't even complete… and this was on the internet** _ **how**_ **long?**

 **1:** I feel like it'll be a bit awkward if I were to use their given names with apostrophes. For instance "Kan'U's brow." So I'll be using their secondary names where necessary.

 **Alright, so this is my first fanfic where I'm actually replacing the main character with an OC, so we'll see how well this will turn out.**

 **As I said before, most of this fic will be blind, as in I will be watching a playthrough of the Koihime Musou visual novel while I write and have Roland react in place of Kazuto Though depending on what happens later, his vastly different reactions might affect where the story goes entirely, at which point I'll just be winging it.**

 **Now, some of you might be wondering about how Roland talks, given that I keep cutting his speech short and jamming in apostrophes. I sort of visualize him as being something like Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, but maybe with a bit of an exaggerated drawl, giving him a really gruff voice. Not to mention he sort of gives a Wolverine-esque vibe, at least in my biased opinion.**

 **As for the fight between him and the bandits; he made a few mistakes, which I feel is understandable given the situation. Speaking realistically, though, I just needed a reason for Kan'U to intervene. Also, now his pip-boy is broken, resulting in Roland being a bit more vulnerable in combat… a bit**

 **Don't worry, it's not permanent, but I just needed a reason to lower him to something more along the lines of Kazuto's level, seeing as he's not exactly a seasoned warrior like our favorite courier, nor does he have any firearms. Because of these factors, however, Roland will be taking a more active part in fights.**

 **That's all I think I have to mention for now. If you have any complaints, questions, or suggestions then leave me a review, but aside from that, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

 **Anyways, I'll see you all in the next chapter. Buh-bye for now!**


	3. Courier From Hell

Divinity and the Devil's luck

Chapter 2: Courier from Hell

 **Alright! So this is chapter two!**

 **First off; I apologize for such a long and impromptu hiatus, however I've been looking for a new computer recently and I had to move my internet router away from my old one, so I couldn't do much more than type with it until recently. Because of this, I decided to take a little break and relax so I could recharge my creative batteries and keep this fic from getting dull, as well as to sort out my various thoughts and ideas.**

 **On another subject; I'm so happy to have so many reviews, which is surprising, considering that there's only two chapters! (Well, one and a prologue) All of which I'm happy to say were positive, too. Thank you all for your support and positive reinforcement, despite the lack of updates.**

 **Of course, criticism is always welcome as well, so if I could have done a scene better or you think some aspect of my writing is lacking a certain quality, feel free to let me know and I might make the edit if I agree/have the time.**

 **On that topic, one particular comment piqued my interest. You see, I've found a playlist on youtube that plays through the visual novel, a media which I know very little about and have no access to aside from the aforementioned playlist. I plan on incorporating elements from all forms of media pertaining to the series, like I will with Crossed Fates.**

 **However, what caught my attention was the mention of multiple paths in the story. Now, from my limited knowledge of visual novels, I imagine the multiple paths lead to various endings or pairings with the main character. I want to make one solid branch in which various aspects from the majority of these diverging timelines all end up in the same story. As long as it stays within the boundaries of the characters' personalities and the given situations, of course.**

 **Now, I don't have access to visual novels of any sort, so whatever happens here is parallel to what I know about the story from the youtube videos and anime. If anyone has any information, I'd like to know; maybe something along the lines of how many branches there are and if selecting different branches vastly changes the outcome of the events in the story. I would also appreciate any links to videos of- or pages describing- these said paths or major events therein, and only in English, seeing as it's the only language I can speak/read with any degree of competence.**

 **If it turns out that there are too many differences, then I'll probably just make my own fictional "branch" that incorporates aspects from all of them into one. I know that the anime is far different from the graphic novel from what I've seen thus far, and I count that as a separate timeline altogether. And before anyone asks; yes I will be incorporating elements from the anime into this story.**

 **Ok. Now I'm done my rant, so I'll let you get on with it and enjoy this crappy fic.**

"Speech"

' _Thought/Reading'_

"Synthesized/Robotic Speech"

*Onomatopoeia* (sound effect)

 **(Author's Note)**

 **Xxxxxx Scene Change xxxxxx**

 **xxxxxx** Scene Break

 **I don't own the Fallout series, Koihime Musou, or any related products. If I did… well that would be a strange combination, considering how vastly different they are, wouldn't it? Also, credit for the fic idea itself goes to drake202.**

 **Now, without any further stalling…**

 **On with the show!**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

"So, wait… you think I'm some sort of… god?" asked Roland with a blank expression. He was honestly unsure as to how he should react to the idea.

They had been walking for what he assumed was half an hour, or at least close to it, and were now on an actual dirt road rather than in the middle of a field or forest.

The woman put a hand to her chin as she figured out how she'd explain the situation. "Not a god, so to speak, so much as an angel; a messenger of heaven." she said "And surely you must be. You fell from the sky, you have such fair skin, and your eyes reflect the raging storm clouds. Surely you must be counted amongst heaven's numbers."

Said blue eyes rolled in exasperation. "So I'm guessin' you don't get many white guys out here." the male said, before shaking his head with a sigh. "Sorry to disappoint, but I didn't come from heaven or anything magical like that." he explained "I just… fell outa the sky."

Kan'U looked back at him with a raised brow. "That doth seem magical to me."

The man huffed in annoyance. "Hmph. Not if you know how I ended up _in_ the sky to start with."

The woman looked curiously at him, but decided it was best not to ask, likely out of some misplaced respect that she held for him as her "messenger from heaven" whatever that was supposed to be. Instead, she simply remained silent and continued walking for a while; however it would seem that, in her silent boredom, her mind wandered. Despite her cool demeanor, Kan'U was apparently not as used to walking in total silence as Roland was, which was a given considering that ED-E wasn't much of a conversationalist until recent events.

So, the warrior decided to start up on a new subject.

"Hmm…" she mused "So, you believe it wise to begin with the Yellow Turbans?" Kan'U asked out of the blue, much to the courier's confusion.

"Yellow what? What do you mean? I hope you're not planning on making me take off my hat." he said defensively, inching away from the woman as they walked.

"Eh?" the woman asked, turning around in a panic "I-I have no such intention milord!" she squawked, waving her hands before her as though to placate Roland's displeasure. "I was simply thinking aloud! Surely quelling the Yellow Turbans is the most feasible course of action at the moment, which wouldst be much easier using the village as a launching point. No doubt why you wish to head there. Expert planning milord!"

She then began to ramble quickly about how brilliant he was and how she was sure this course of action would set them on the right path to accomplishing their goals, obviously in an attempt to ingratiate herself and avoid angering him.

Roland rubbed his brow in annoyance. "Alright, alright. I get it; I'm amazing." he said sarcastically, silencing the woman, who had the decency to look embarrassed by her outburst. "Now, start from the beginning. What are the Yellow Turbans?"

"They are a group of rebels based in the wilds around this area that have been stirring up unrest for some time now, though it is difficult to say where they set up camp. I hear tell that they have been recruiting volunteers from a nearby village." the woman explained. "Is that not why you decided to go there first?"

"Lady, I have no idea what's going on, where I am, how I got here, or who you are. I don't know anything about a messenger from heaven either; all I wanted to do was restock in the nearest town before heading off to negotiate with the tribes of the region, or whatever leaders you have." the cowboy said in an irate tone.

The black-haired spearmaiden grew nervous as she saw him grit his teeth. "I-I apologize if I have agitated you milord." she said hesitantly "I assumed you would have known about the factions, seeing as you were sent here to put an end to this war."

Roland shook his head and sighed. "Look; it's not that I don't wanna see this whole conflict come to an end, but it's just not my problem. I don't even know who's fighting or why. Hell, I didn't even know anything about this place until a few weeks ago." he explained desperately.

At that, Kan'U paused. "I see…" she said, looking at the ground sullenly all of a sudden. "So… thou truly art not the messenger from heaven."

"That's what I've been saying. I'm just a courier with funny-looking skin, at least by your standards." the man repeated, continuing on his way. He stopped, however, when he noticed the woman hadn't decided to follow, so he turned to her and caught her downtrodden look. "Aw, hell…" the man groaned "What's wrong?" he asked reluctantly.

Kan'U leaned up against a nearby tree, looking at the grass below her thoughtfully. "Nothing you need concern yourself with. My apologies for bothering you under these false pretenses. You may leave if you so wish."

Roland's eye twitched. _'I know she's not trying, but damn if it doesn't feel like she's guilt-tripping me.'_

In the end, the male sighed and stood next to her, leaning on the same tree. "Hey…" he said hesitantly, as though searching for the right words to use. "…You helped me with those bandit sons of bitches, so the least I can do is hear ya' out."

The woman appeared surprised for a moment, looking up at him only to see genuine kindness sitting behind that gruff exterior, so she turned away from him and took a deep breath. At first, she seemed reluctant to say anything, as though she were debating with herself internally on whether she should confide in him or not. Be it through some misplaced trust, some residual respect for his presumed godlike status, or some sort of unknown compulsion, she trusted him in the end. So, relenting, she caved and started to speak.

"I… I left my home village on a quest; to seek out a master upon whom I might depend… one with the power to bring about an end to these conflicts and the suffering they cause." she explained. "However, the flames of war still continued to spread, as they do today, and what I have witnessed; all the suffering and misery… it has left me…" she hesitated for only a moment "heartbroken… mortified." The woman was obviously depressed by the memory of what she'd seen. "But then I encountered the oracle, Kanro, and heard his prophecy, which gave me hope at finally finding a means to end the suffering of the people."

The woman bit her lip, turning away from him. "However, if thou art truly not the messenger from heaven… what will I do? What fate awaits the world, and those weak people who cannot defend themselves? Those thoughts cross my mind and…" she trailed off, tears glistening in her eyes. When she spoke next, she had managed to restrain her emotions "Pardon my ramblings. There's no need to burden you with them." She then stood and turned towards the direction of the village. "If it please you, we might make our way to the village together, and from there you may go on your way and I shall rally an army of volunteers to fight the yellow turbans." She nodded confidently to herself "Yes. Surely we shall succeed, and one day thou shalt hear of our exploits."

Roland simply fell into step behind her and conflicted silently with himself. They walked in silence for a few miles, with Kan'U silently reigning in her despair and Roland's common sense arguing back and forth with his conscience before coming to a conclusion with yet another sigh. _'Damn my helpful nature.'_ he thought about ten minutes later.

"Look…" he said, causing the woman to turn around and look curiously at him. "I… I figure I owe you a bit for seeing off those bandits and helping me get my bearings 'round here." he said, stopping short a few feet away from her. "I can't promise you anything more, but I'll help you beat these Yellow Turbans, and we can see what happens from there." he said, doing his best to resist the temptation to drink from his flask.

The woman was surprised. "Eh? But… thou art not the messenger of prophecy. And didst thou not say that this was not your conflict?"

The courier grumbled to himself, walking ahead of the woman slightly. "Well, I may not be some god-sent soldier of heaven, but… I might have under-stated my importance earlier when I said I was just a courier." he admitted gruffly, turning away from the spearmaiden. "I won't go into detail, but let's just say I've fought my fair share of wars, and I'm good at it."

This change of heart surprised Kan'U thoroughly. "Re-Really?"

The gunman nodded. "Yeah. And as for the whole 'Messenger from heaven' shtick; I'm technically a messenger, being a courier an' all…" he muttered. "'Sides… it's not someone from heaven ya' need." he explained, walking forward up the path in front of her.

Kan'U looked astonished, following after him. "What-"

"Lady." Roland said, turning back to the woman with a cocky smirk. "What you need, is someone straight outta hell. And I'll have you know, the Mojave is the closest thing I can think of." he said confidently. He then shrugged "Guess it can't be helped; looks like I'm going to war again."

The spear-wielding warrior stared at the man with hope and joy written on her face, tears glistening in her eyes. "T-Thou art truly going to assist me?" she asked.

The man nodded. "Yeah, I guess so." he replied "I mean it wouldn't make a very good first impression if I let your people burn themselves to the ground. 'Sides, I'm more cut out for fightin' than I am for politics anyways." he grumbled the last part more to himself than to her.

He paused only moments later, and this time it was his turn to be surprised when his impromptu traveling companion suddenly darted forwards and stood in front of him, bowing deeply in what looked like respect. "Wha-"

"Thank you!" she cried out. "Thou may not be a messenger from heaven, but thou art a great and kind man, worthy of being my lord." the woman declared. "Surely there can be no mistake; and as such, I now swear myself to you as your retainer."

Then, she bowed even lower, until her torso was nearly parallel to the ground. "My given name is Kan'U, my common name is Unchou, and my true name is Aisha…" she introduced herself again "Please, call me by my true name from now on, and henceforth I shall call you My Lord."

"Huh?" the man grunted dumbfoundedly. _'She added another name… and the fuck's a retainer?'_ he thought to himself before shaking his head _'Ugh…Just roll with it. Too much trouble tying to figure this woman out…'_

Roland coughed into his fist in order to regain his composure. "I-It's not that big of a deal, really. I'm used to doing things for other people without much prior information." he paused suddenly. "It's kind of a weird compulsion, now that I think about it." he muttered to himself.

The woman looked confused by the comment. "Pardon?"

The gunslinger just waved her off. "Err… nevermind. Let's get going."

Kan'U watched as he continued on forward past her. She blinked, confused by the words, but shook her head rapidly and turned to run after him. "W-Wait for me milord!"

 **Xxxxxx Meanwhile; Far-off Forest xxxxxx**

The spherical, metallic form of ED-E hovered between the trees, turning back and forth as he cautiously scanned the area around him for threats. It was clear that he was nervous, his posture- or at least what passed for such in the robot- said as much.

A cold wind blew through the foliage, causing the leaves to rustle, which in turn made the machine freeze in place, suddenly alert for surrounding dangers.

*woosh!*

*Pew!*

After another breeze, the last of his reserves broke. He spun around and unleashed a ruby beam of light, the lazer cleaving through the vegetation in an arc that left only the smoldering bushes and a perfectly-cut tree, the singed stump of which was still glowing orange in places. Needless to say, the robot's fears were wholly unfounded, as nothing more than a small white field mouse came rolling out of the charred bush, its breathing short and its eyes wide in shock.

ED-E paused and stared down at the rodent, who returned the glance with pure terror written on its face, completely paralyzed. Then, a red light began to build up in the eyebot's weapon attachment, causing the mouse to stiffen as its life flashed before its beady black eyes…

 **Xxx**

 _Several baby mice were curled up with their mother, each of them suckling from one of her many teats in order to gather nutrients and grow up big and strong._

 _Two such mice, however, finished their feeding earlier than the rest and had curled up beside each other for warmth. The first was a completely white mouse, and the other was brown and had a white underbelly. They seemed familiar with one-another, though neither of them had managed to open their eyes yet, and mainly navigated by smell in their cozy little hole._

 _The white mouse angled its head up towards the brown one and nuzzled into its side for warmth before drifting off to sleep._

 **xxx**

*Pew*

Suddenly, a small branch fell to the ground in front of it, the end of which was still smoking from where the eyebot's lazer had severed it from the tree. The mouse leapt in surprise, not having expected that sort of outcome.

Suddenly, though, it paused as a sweet scent wafted across its nose, drawing its attention towards the fallen limb, upon which were hung dozens of big, red, ripe-looking berries. The mouse looked back to ED-E with a surprised expression across its tiny face. The robot simply let out a few beeping sounds before turning around and floating off through the forest, continuing on his original path.

The rodent stood there in surprise for a moment, before turning towards the branch and picking at the berries with its paws and muzzle, leaving its face stained with their red juices.

It paused, however, when a series of silent footsteps broke through the scorched underbrush, heralding the approach of several black-clad humans wearing leather padding. This caught the rodent's interest, and it watched as they quickly crept through the bushes in the same general direction as the robot had gone…

It chirped and tilted its head in confusion.

 **Xxxxxx Meanwhile; with Roland and Aisha xxxxxx**

The town was abandoned; a warm wind blowing dirt off the empty streets as if to emphasize just how hollow the ghost town appeared to be. The buildings were smouldering with embers and giving off copious amounts of black smoke that choked the air in the streets of the burnt-out market district.

"Huh… looks familiar." the courier muttered with a stern scowl.

Aisha turned to him in confusion "Pardon?"

"It's nothing." he replied. "So what do you think happened here?"

Aisha's eyes turned downwards in mixed contemplation and sorrow. "I am… unsure. Whoever did this, however, must have been a terrible monster…" for the most part, she looked put-out, but Roland could see anger burning beneath the blanket of sadness. After a moment of thought, the woman let out a heavy sigh and gathered her wits "We must first discover what happened to the-" she started to speak, but paused when she witnessed her lord wandering over to the husk of a nearby building.

Once there, he pulled aside a charred support strut to reveal an equally-blackened corpse, the body dried out to the point of mummification by the smoke and the mouth hung agape in a scream of agony and terror as he had doubtlessly struggled to break open the door, only to have been trapped by the falling debris and suffocated.

Aisha covered her mouth in horror as she stared into the empty sockets of the cadaver, her face turning equal parts pale and green upon beholding it. "That poor man…" she muttered, steeling herself and looking away from the scene with a grim frown.

"I wouldn't go cryin' over him just yet." Roland said gruffly "Look at his clothes. They seem familiar to you?"

The woman was confused by that statement, and couldn't help her curiosity as it drew her to look back at the corpse, though she did her best to keep her eyes on the clothes it was wearing as opposed to its withered, gaping visage. At first, she didn't see much of note, as far as burnt bodies went, but after a moment of searching, she began to notice something strikingly familiar about it; specifically, the patch of charred yellow cloth around the neck. "Wait... That's-"

"Yellow turbans." Roland completed the statement. "Dumb bastard probably tried to loot the house, but got stuck in there when his buddies set the place on fire and sealed him in…" He then scoffed and gave a disinterested grunt as he walked off, leaving the corps to fall back unceremoniously into the heap of embers. "Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."

Kan'U looked up to him with a curious expression, having recovered from the initial shock of the body knowing that it belonged to a bandit. "How dost thou know this?"

The man shrugged "Seen it before; the haze of battle makes it hard to tell who's who." He then began looking around the roads nearby "But right now, we need to figure out what happened to the people who lived here." he said, getting his mind in the game and looking around for clues.

His young retainer, however, was looking for something completely different; and from the sound she made moments later, it seemed she found it. "Ah! Milord, there!" she said, pointing up towards a tall, multi-layered tower of some sort in the center of town, which stood at least a dozen meters over the other buildings around them.

The man arced his brows "Huh, good thinkin' Aisha. We might be able to spot something from up there." he said as he made his way towards the tower.

The ravenette nodded her head "Yes, but there is another reason as well." she said, garnering his attention once more "I am unsure of how familiar you are with our infrastructure, but that building is the home of the town's mayor; surely it would be amongst the most well-fortified buildings." **(1)**

Roland snapped his fingers in realization. "So, if we're lookin' for survivors, that's the most likely place! Good on you!" he said, before turning and rushing towards the building.

Kan'U quietly beamed at the praise, following swiftly after her master.

 **Xxxxxx**

It wasn't long before the two were at the top of the tower, seeing as both were well-built soldiers and could keep up a good pace for hours if need be; a short jog like that was nothing for them.

At the moment, Roland was looking through the scope of his crappy pilfered sniper rifle for any signs of life stirring in the admittedly large town. However, he was met with little success, seeing as the smoke in the air interfered with his vision and the settling of the various buildings made it look as though the whole town was moving. He couldn't tell what was a crumbling wall or a survivor pushing his way out of the ashes, and it annoyed him, so he decided to take a calming breath and strike up a conversation with a perplexed-looking Kan'U to take his mind off it.

"Say, Aisha…" he muttered.

The woman, who had taken to curiously eying up his sniper, suddenly started in surprise at being addressed. "Y-Yes milord!?" she asked.

Roland either didn't notice the reaction, or he didn't care, as he kept his cool and remained in position, looking through the scope. "You're awfully calm about the situation." he said "Most people I know would at the very least show some disgust at the scene, but you're actin' all calm and casual."

The retainer's demeanor shifted to a more solemn one as she looked up and away from the town. "Aye." she replied "Such scenes become… commonplace after the fourth or fifth encounter." She then frowned "Though it never gets any easier to stomach…" she then scoffed quietly to herself "I suppose I should be worried for my career as a soldier if I feel ill at such minor provocations."

The courier turned to his new acquaintance, watching momentarily as she stared into the ash-choked sky "It's not supposed to get easier." he muttered, drawing the woman's gaze back to his. Quickly, though, the man returned to searching the ruins for survivors "It's when you start gettin' numb that you gotta watch out. 'Cause that's when you start to turn into something you'll hate. Brutal, merciless, inhuman… at least, so I hear."

Aisha looked surprised by the comment. "I… I see." she muttered.

Before anything more could be said between them, Roland pulled up his rifle and stowed it on his back. "Found something." he said, before turning back to the stairs leading down through the tower.

"What is it milord?" asked the spearmaiden as she fell into step behind him.

Roland put up a professional aura as they walked, giving off the air of a man who had gone through the motions numerous times before. "At the very least, there's about twenty of 'em who're holed up in a big building near the north of town. Looks like a tavern, but they fortified it with some of the scrap from the surrounding buildings. It's more of a bunker now than anythin'."

The woman nodded, listening closely as her lord explained the situation. "So we are going to meet up with them?" she asked, and Roland nodded.

"Yeah; we have to take stock of the situation. But I suggest ya' put yer spear away. They might not take too kindly to a couple o' armed strangers struttin' up to them after what happened. It's a good way ta' get shot before we even get close."

Uneasily, Aisha nodded and slipped her spear into its holster on her back, though remained tense and ready to draw it again in the event of an ambush. "I've no intention of taking an arrow today."

Roland quirked a brow momentarily, but he then disregarded it.

As they walked, the pair soon noticed a change in scenery; the structures around them started to show less damage, as though the raid hadn't gotten to them or they had simply been passed over. The buildings themselves were clearly smaller than the others before and in poor condition despite being undamaged, signifying that the less-wealthy members of society likely resided there prior to the attack, though it was hard to tell of their state of disrepair was completely attributed to the passage of time, given the condition of rest of the village.

"That doth explain it…" muttered Kan'U.

Roland turned back to her with a questioning look. "Explain what?"

The warrior-woman gestured over to the surrounding buildings. "This doth be the poor district, where the vagabonds and peasants collect. Raiding this area was likely more effort than it was worth to the Yellow Turbans."

The gunslinger nodded with a hum. "So, most of the survivors must've come here to avoid being caught. Makes sense."

The pair then fell silent as they approached the former-tavern. They were both surprised, however, when they found themselves met with no resistance from any of the townsfolk, even as they entered the building. Sure, everyone stopped to stare, but that was about it.

The inside of the tavern was whole and in one piece, aside from some ware on the furniture and a bit of mold in the ceiling, though it appeared as though a few of the tables had been pulled apart to reinforce the windows, leaving many to eat out of trays on their laps. It was spacious inside, and clearly provided enough space for a large group of survivors to live in, though from the sounds of it there were more people walking around upstairs and perhaps some in the basement. Everyone sat around in their seats, looking depressed and downtrodden as they stared into their drinks or toyed with what little food rations they had managed to scrape together.

One villager approached them; he was a chubby man with a singed moustache and was clad in the torn and burnt remnants of a set of fine clothes, giving him the air of a former noble, obviously fallen on hard times. "You two don't look familiar." he said, glancing pointedly at Roland for obvious reasons "Who are you, and why are you here?" he asked the pair, his voice weary and heavy.

The gunslinger was the one who stepped forward. "Name's Roland, and this is Ai-"

"Kan'U." the woman interrupted looking apologetically over to him, before returning to the wealthy man. "We have come to fight against these wars and the suffering they bring. Our first target is the yellow turbans."

The courier sighed quietly. _'Foreign customs… I'll just have to take time to figure 'em out later.'_

The nobleman, however, looked surprised and overjoyed. "The imperial guard has come to save us!?" he asked, and a few of the nearby townies rejoiced.

This came to an end, however, when Kan'U shook her head and frowned. "No; we are unfortunately not with the imperial guard."

The atmosphere became somber once more as the group let out a sigh of disappointment. "Damn." muttered one of the villagers.

Roland, seeing that the people were returning to their depressed states, attempted to raise their spirits again. "We _are_ here to help, though." he clarified, hoping that having some outside assistance would at least convince them the world hadn't forgotten about them.

This failed, however, when one of the villagers- a middle-aged man with black hair and eyes- looked over at them, a sneer upon his obviously-drunken visage. "Yeah? And what're a couple o' *hic* kidsh gonna do when the town guard couldn't hold tha' fuckers off?" he slurred.

The apparent leader of their group sighed. "There were just too many of them to fight off. Even between the guards and some local militia, we couldn't keep them out of the city for more than an hour."

"Were there really so many?" asked Kan'U as she gripped the back of Roland's shirt; the latter of which was gritting his teeth and fuming as he glared at the drunkard who'd called them children. Said drunk was currently at the bottom of another cup, blissfully unaware of the fact he had just pissed off the most deadly marksman in the Mojave.

Meanwhile, the village leader continued to explain the situation. "There were at least four thousand of them. We fought them off as well as we could, but we're not exactly a big city or anything. There was nothing we could do against them in the end, and we wound up only holding them long enough to gather most of the village in here and waiting out the storm as they raided the wealthier districts." He then swallowed hard, trying to clear the lump in his throat. "What's worse, though, is that a few messengers returned this morning and said they'd be back for the rest of our belongings. He didn't say when, though." The man was clearly sweating and shivering by that point.

"Probably wanted to leave us stewing in our fear, the bastards." said an average-looking guy with brown hair; he looked like a merchant.

The drunk man then spoke up. "Those fuckers come back an' I'll kill 'em all myself! I'll be damned if I let 'em take our food!" he crowed, slamming a fist onto the table.

The merchant man spoke up. "What can you do? Huh?" he asked "You barely got to keep your leg last time they raided! And that was with the whole village guard at your back!"

The drunk man stood up. "I can try dammit! Gah!" he suddenly hissed and fell back into his seat, having hurt his bandaged leg.

"Enough, both of you!" called the plump man, causing the sober villager to turn away in shame as the drunk man grumbled bitterly into his mostly-empty cup.

"I'm sorry sir…" muttered the one to start the argument. "It's just; if they come back, they'll probably take my wife and daughter too…" he said, scowling as he looked at the floor.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" asked the leader of the survivors.

The villager sighed. "I... I don't know what we _can_ do sir." he said, trailing off quietly.

"Dammit!" crowed yet another villager- a peasant this time- the despair becoming too much for him. "Why aren't the imperial guard coming for us!? This whole rebellion is thanks to the selfishness of those officials in the capitol, and when we end up suffering for them, they don't even lift one of their fat, greasy fingers to help us!? Those bastards can all rot in hell!"

"Shut it, piss-pot!" shouted the drunk. "Bitching about it won't get us anywhere!"

"Well what else am I supposed to do!? They'll just keep coming back over and over again until there's nothing left to steal!" shouted the scrawny man. "I didn't have much to begin with, but they'll leave me with nothing!"

Aisha's expression hardened and she frowned. "As much as I hate to admit it, there will likely be another battle soon." she said unhelpfully.

"See!? Even the kid agrees with me!" the gaunt villager bemoaned "They're gonna take all our valuables! They'll burn our homes, eat our food and deflower our women! And they won't stop coming until there's nothing left to-!"

*Thunk!*

"Gwah!"

Throughout the man's tirade, the majority of the room had been growing more and more annoyed with him, and just as it seemed as though the drunk was about to snap again, a bowie knife went flying across the room and embedded itself in the wall right next to the loudmouthed villager. Everyone went silent and turned in surprise to see Roland standing in place, his hand outstretched towards the man and a dull look on his face.

"Ya' done whining?" he asked, slowly lumbering up towards the place he'd embedded his blade, and subsequently the currently-terrified man.

"Nice, isn't it?" he asked, walking between a couple chairs, reaching up and grabbing it by the handle. "Sharp… deadly… pretty accurate when thrown." he continued, giving a hard yank and pulling the weapon out of the wall. "The previous owner took good care of it too." he then turned slowly to the scrawny man who had started the commotion "Of course, it didn't do him any favors when I pulled it out of his hand and planted it in his skull." The man then turned away from the now-cowering peasant and looked at the drunk man. "Still think I'm just a kid, old man?"

The villagers all started to shift uncomfortably, and Aisha looked genuinely surprised by the spontaneous actions of her lord. Still, he continued to talk.

"Now; I might _look_ young, but I've seen this shit a hundred times before. I've watched villages burn and people die, I've seen bandits and slavers take people in the dead of night, and I've seen bloodthirsty monsters of both human and inhuman varieties tear down entire platoons o' soldiers. But you know what else I've seen? I've seen what happens when people get up off their asses and do something about it!"

The apparent leader of the survivors stepped forward, his hands up nervously in an attempt to placate him. "L-Look; we already tried to fight the-"

"Wrong." Roland interrupted "From what you told me; the militia got together an unorganized defense while you all hid in a tavern." he explained. "No wonder ya' got wrecked! You don't have any goddamn training, or even a basic battle plan!"

The drunk man sighed. "Yeah, that's about right." he said with surprising coherence "They came in so quickly that we barely had time to grab weapons, let alone fortify or organize." he explained. "Some of the guards even went out in their night wear. I'm surprised we lasted as long as we did."

The courier looked over at him with a quirked brow. "What? You were out there?"

The drunk man nodded. "I was. Damn bastards burned down the guard tower I was in and a support beam crushed my right leg." he said, gesturing to the bandaged limb "Broke it in three places. The only reason I'm alive is because they thought nobody could've survived that." He then chuckled "Looks like I proved them wrong."

Roland sighed and nodded. "Well, I guess we got some experience on our team. So that's good."

The man grunted. "Weren't ya listening? I said I got my leg all smashed up! It doesn't matter how much experience I have if I can't fight." he grumbled "Not that it'd do any good anyways against a force like that." It appeared that his earlier drunken bravado had drained from him as he sobered slightly

"You'd be surprised what one man can do." replied Roland as he approached the man, stowing the knife in his boot. "But ya got a point. With yer leg all messed up like that, we can't get ya out on the field."

The drunk snorted. "Yeah; that's what I'm sayin'"

Roland paused, then sighed. "Look's like I'm gonna have to use one…" he muttered.

The drunk looked confused by the statement. "Use what?"

Roland disregarded the question and reached down to use his pip-boy, but paused upon realizing it was still inoperable, so he instead opted to remove his travel bag from his back and place it on the table. "Say; What's yer name old man?" he asked, manually sorting through the assorted loot he carried around with him.

The man stared at him oddly for a second before replying. "Feng Jianjun" he said with a sigh, apparently coming to his senses with a scowl "I guess you could say I'm captain of the guard now, seeing as I'm all that's left."

Roland nodded. "My name's Roland… Just Roland." he introduced himself gruffly, withdrawing a plastic bottle with a worn label on it, completely illegible at that point. It didn't matter, though, seeing as it was covered by several loops of masking tape, which held fast a series of small beakers to the side, the tops of which were plugged by a number of surgical tubes that lead up into the neck of the bottle, the top of which was stopped by a cork. On one side of the bottle was the word "Hydra" scribbled hastily on the tape in marker.

The other occupants of the room looked curiously at the bottle, and were surprised when he handed it to the crippled guard.

Of course, this earned him a suspicious look from Feng, who looked between the cowboy and the bottle cautiously. "What is this? Some sort of drink?"

Roland shook his head. "No, it's medicine. Back home, we use it to fix up crippled limbs." he explained, before letting out a chuckle. "Honestly, I can't tell ya' how many times I was left limping up and down the wasteland lookin' for a doctor after some raider got in a lucky shot and broke my leg."

The courier's casual demeanor seemed to put the man at ease about the medicine, so he took it, looking it over with a critical eye. "So… what's this gonna do?" he asked, eyeing it less suspiciously and more cautiously.

The young man hummed in thought. "Well, it'll fix ya' up as good as any doctor. Patches up injuries, stops bleeding, mends bones, the whole sha-bang. It won't completely fix you, but it'll get ya' back on yer feet and in fighin' shape."

Feng sighed and pulled the cork out of the bottle. "Well, I suppose if you were going to kill me, then you would have by now." he commented, before downing the whole elixir in one go, not taking a breath until the very end.

He cringed as he withdrew the bottle from his mouth. "Gah! That's horrible!" he said, his cheeks turning slightly green. "What's in this?"

The gunman waved him off. "Trust me; you don't want to know."

Sighing, Feng just shook his head and put his bottle down. "Alright, I won't ask." he relented, before turning to look at his bum leg. "But I don't feel any different. Is it supposed to actually _do_ something soon?"

The courier just nodded "Yeah, just wait a second."

"Well, if you say-" he suddenly paused and turned pale as his skin started to crawl, his muscles twitching and the whole leg vibrating. "The hell!?"

Pulling up the leg of his pants and ripping off most of the blood-soaked cloth bandages, the man revealed his damaged limb to everyone present, only for a few people to cringe and turn away as they saw the torn, bruised, and burnt flesh. Those who did manage to keep their eyes on the scene were left astonished as the skin and muscle of said tormented limb began to shift unnaturally, crawling and writhing as the wounds began to close. The openings began to swell and pucker up around the edges and the sides drew closer together, what bleeding there was stopping almost instantly as the broken veins clotted then closed up swiftly. What was left of his bandages then came loose as a series of muffled pops and cracks could be heard from the leg, causing the bindings to fall off and descend to the ground, alongside a wooden brace that was put in place to splint his fractures. Though it appeared that was no longer necessary as his leg had straightened out on its own and was no longer broken.

Within minutes, his leg was left with minor, superficial injuries and a number of pale red scars.

"What?" the man squawked, before experimentally placing his foot flat on the ground, putting a little pressure on it. He pressed down on it a few times, and his eyes widened as he watched the limb support his weight, prompting him to stand up swiftly, looking on in disbelief as his leg held. He then began to laugh. "Heh… hahaha! Its a miracle!" cried the ex-cripple, his somberness and drunken stupor dissipating almost instantly as the hydra did its work.

The room was left speechless at the display of what could only be described as some sort of witchcraft, the effect of which was only amplified when the former guard stood up and began dancing in place; a scene that would have been ridiculous in any other situation.

Aisha's gaze then turned from the man's leg to the empty bottle, then once more to Roland, who was stowing the container in his bag again, likely for future use. It took a moment for the man to realize everyone was staring at him with astonished expressions, which caused him to quirk a brow. "What?"

It was Kan'U who spoke up, clearing her throat to try and find her voice. "Milord; 'twas a miraculous feat you just preformed!" she clarified for him, watching as Feng laughed to himself, doing a silly little jug in place in order to test his newly-restored limb.

Roland just shrugged. "It's just medicine. Not like I brought him back from the dead."

"Still; without your help I would be out of commission for at least a month if I were lucky." said Feng, approaching the courier with a smile. Now that he was standing, it was very obvious that the man, while still obviously middle-aged, was by no means past his prime; his arms rippled with lean muscles and his stature, though hidden by his cotton shirt, was that of a seasoned soldier. "But now… now I can get out there and get back at those Yellow Turbans!"

The village leader balked. "W-wait. What?" he asked, looking around in confusion, obviously still in shock about the whole ordeal.

The guard turned to him with a smirk. "Well, you can't expect me to sit around and do nothing while those bandits threaten our home and these kids go out to fight for our sakes." he explained to the dumbfounded leader.

Roland chuckled. "I'm likin' this motivation. Not bad for an old man who was drunk off his ass and ready to give up on life a few minutes ago."

Feng snorted "Who said anything about giving up? I was just being a bit… over-dramatic." he grunted in embarrassment. "I was drunk."

The courier scoffed. "Well, you don't seem too wasted now. So either you've got a damn good constitution or you were just actin' like a drama queen earlier."

"S-Shut it!" barked an indignant Feng.

They were interrupted, once more, by the town leader. "Wait, wait, wait!" he said, exhausted and confused by the sudden shift in mood. "How are you going to take on the Turbans? There's only three of you, and thousands of them."

It was then that Kan'U spoke up. "That is why we need volunteers. Anyone who can stand and fight will do. Women, teens, merchants; it matters not."

At that declaration, the rest of the tavern became uneasy. "N-Now hold on; we can't fight! All the soldiers in the village were run down last night, with the exception of Feng here, and don't you think that the rest of us would have helped fend them off if we could!?" said the man. "We can't fight; we're not strong enough!"

Roland stepped up to plate this time. "Well, you seem to have fortified this tavern pretty well. You can obviously organize yourselves when the time calls for it, and those Yellow turbans aren't very smart, or well armed from what I saw."

"What? You've encountered them before?" asked the pudgy man.

Kan'U stepped in then. "Indeed he has. He fended off three of them at once with naught but his wits and a sling." she explained, causing a few people to mutter amongst themselves in surprise.

Despite this revelation, the man sighed, massaging his head. "As the mayor of this town, there's no way I can simply allow my citizens throw themselves into a slaughter; we've lost enough people already. You'll all end up getting killed and all it will accomplish is stirring up the hornet's nest, prompting them to come in here and either kill us all or take a few people to make examples of. I'll not let that happen." He then turned to look off to the side with a conflicted and worried expression. "And even if I did allow it; you wouldn't be able to convince anyone to go along with this suicidal plan. We're already beaten, these people have lost all hope." he said gesturing to the rest of the tavern.

"So, what? Are we supposed to just give up?" asked Feng. "Should we just surrender to them? Lay down and die!?"

"What!? No!" the mayor argued. "We can wait here, let them raid the town until they get bored or run out of things to steal. Then they'll leave us alone and go off to greener pastures so we can rebuild here."

The guardsman snorted in contempt. "You and I both know that they won't just raid the place and leave. They're the worst sort of bandits; they'll come for us and either try to make us slaves or kill us for our pocket change. And even if they were satisfied with sacking the town, I couldn't just sit back and let our home burn."

Roland nodded in response to this comment. "These bastards only win if you let 'em. Trust me, I've seen it all before; you lay down and die, then you're doomed from the start, but if ya' get off yer ass and fight 'em, then you'll win."

The mayor looked at him as though he were mad. "You're telling me that we're guaranteed victory if we just stand up and fight these barbarians?"

The courier sighed. "In a way. If ya' fight 'em, then you refuse to let yourselves be broken or made slaves by your own fear. Even if ya' die, you do it on your own terms and show that they can't control you." he said, pulling his flask from his duster and taking a swig. "Plus;" he grunted "I've seen little towns fight off entire platoons of soldiers; with the right motivation and a little planning, o' course."

"Are you mad!?" the nobleman asked, flailing his arms for emphasis. "You're talking about just throwing ourselves into a meat grinder! And for what!? Some stupid pride!?"

"If your pride isn't worth that much, then why hang around?" the courier rebuked.

"What?" the mayor replied, blinking owlishly.

Kan'U was the one to answer his inquiry. "If thine pride were worth so little, then thou wouldst have abandoned the town after the first assault, and no doubt many have, yet thou and the rest of thine people remain here. Surely that at least speaks to their pride and stubbornness."

Feng cracked his knuckles and nodded. "Heh, even when I was crippled and had given up, my sister refused to leave, so I had no choice but to stick around to make sure she didn't go out there and start raising hell herself. You know how she gets."

One of the merchants- the plain looking man who had been freaking out near the start of the conversation- groaned. "My wife and daughter wouldn't let me live it down if I made them relocate."

This prompted a few of the others around him to laugh, lightening the mood considerably. It appeared that the presence of these confident outsiders had boosted morale of the people loitering around the tavern's main floor.

Eventually, the nobleman had to relent in the face of not just the warriors, but his own people as well, and he sighed. "F-Fine… I won't stop you if you want to go provoke the Turbans, but I just ask that you give us a little while to evacuate the village beforehand."

Roland nodded. "Alright, but we only have so much time before they come back on their own, and they're not too likely to overlook this area of town again." he explained "So if you're plannin' to leave, ya' better make it quick."

The mayor just sighed. "Ok… I'll pass on the message to the rest of the villagers and we'll gather what belongings we can, then we'll make our escape as soon as possible."

He then turned to leave, but paused half way to the door to the upper levels of the tavern, turning back. "Though, I still say you'll have trouble gathering volunteers. The people here have their pride, but it's been days. Even they have started to give up." And with that, he turned around and left, closing the door behind him.

Feng chuckled in contempt. "Old man's always been too fatalistic. A determined leader, but a pessimist all the same." he said.

Roland eyed up the man in confusion. "Whaddya mean?"

The guard just chuckled. "The people here still have a little hope left in them. More than he gives them credit for." he explained, patting Roland on the shoulder. "Watch this."

Feng then turned to the table he was sitting at previously and grabbed what remained of his drink, before pounding it back in one gulp. "Alright!" he said, addressing the rest of the people in the room "Anyone who wants to fight and live, gather round! Any of you who'd rather hide away like frightened rabbits in their dens, keep being useless and drink what's left of the alcohol! We'll have more delivered by next week and we need to make room!"

A few of the men turned to each other and nodded, before standing up. "I'm with you!" said one man, a smirk on his face, and was soon followed by the one who'd been sitting beside him.

"Same here! I'm going to protect this village with my life if I have to!" he declared, prompting several more people to stand up and ready themselves to receive orders.

This few was soon followed by a number of others who, upon noticing their fellow villagers were ready for the fight, built up some confidence and joined them. Then more soon followed, and more still, and this continued until nearly the whole room was standing, each and every person there looking on with confidence burning in their eyes.

"See?" said the guard "I told you."

Roland scoffed quietly. "I guess the folk 'round here aren't so different from back home after all." he said proudly, before turning to address the crowd.

"A'right then!" declared Roland, stepping up beside Feng "First order o' business is gettin' out there and rounding up supplies and weapons for the attack!" he ordered, already taking command of the forces. At that point, the majority of the room pumped their fists in the air in excitement.

"Yes sir!" was the general consensus among them as they immediately rushed to the door and made their way outside, into the burned town to do as commanded.

Roland then turned to the remaining people, stragglers who had yet to acknowledge his order, and he stopped them before they could leave. "I need you lot to go through the rest of the tavern and look for any more volunteers among the people here! We'll need as many of ya' as possible if we're gonna take out these bastards!"

"Yes sir!" once more, the response was unanimous as the remaining few spun around and scattered throughout the tavern.

Then, Roland rounded on the remaining few people; those who were either too weak or lacked the confidence to fight. "As fer the rest of you…" he said, looking over their number.

They flinched under his gaze, either out of guilt over their cowardice or depression over their helplessness. Of course, this only lasted a short time before the cowboy sighed. "Look; I don't blame y'all for bein' scared. But if yer not gonna fight, then go pack yer bags. This place ain't anywhere to raise a family with the way it is, and even after we drive out the Yellow Turbans, it'll take a while ta' rebuild, so you'll need a place ta stay 'till then."

After that little pep talk, a few of them looked surprised and they all hesitated, as though debating whether or not to do as he said.

"You heard the man! Get moving!" commanded Feng, and they all bolted upright, making their way out of the room swiftly.

Roland laughed and adjusted his hat. "I guess ya' got more sway 'round here than it looked like at first." he jibed. Then, the cowboy paused in thought as he seemingly realized something. "Oh; and sorry fer stealin' yer thunder there. Old habits 'n all…"

Feng chuckled. "It's fine. I may have gotten them moving, but you were the one who got me off my sorry ass in the first place. If anything, I owe you."

The courier smirked and shook his head. "I'll tell you what; we survive this shitstorm and you can buy me a drink later." he said with a chuckle.

Kan'U huffed and crossed her arms. "Thou hast such little faith in thy own abilities? Nay, in mine as well?" she inquired.

Roland shrugged. "I saw what you did to that big guy, so it's not like I doubt you, but we are pretty badly outnumbered, and outgunned as well, if all we have is a few scavenged weapons. We can win this, but it'll be hard." he clarified with a frown.

The woman shook her head. "I've not heard this term; 'outgunned,' tough I can tell you that such matters as numbers and force of arms are made paltry when strategy is correctly applied to a situation."

The blue-eyed male quirked a brow. "Well I can't exactly be considered a 'big-picture' sorta strategist. I'm used to fighting for myself against small groups of enemies, not commanding armies."

Feng shrugged his meaty shoulders. "And I was just a city guard until recently. I'm really only used to taking orders, not giving them." he admitted, before falling silent as he took stock of the situation.

After a moment, though, he sighed and turned to Kan'U. "For our all our sakes, I hope you have a plan." he said.

The spearmaiden gave a smirk of her own. "I have a few ideas in mind…"

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **And that's a wrap!**

 **(Editor's Note) Okay, so thankfully this wasn't** _ **nearly**_ **as bad as chapter 1. Which makes me confident in my abilities as an author again… or rather for the first time.**

 **Well, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and again, sorry for taking so long.**

I know they don't use the word Mayor to describe their leaders, but this is in English because, essentially, Roland's translator is localizing the terms and words he hears and says, so I won't be using terms in any other language unless there's no direct English translation, and vice-versa. Dala, for all her insanity, is pretty smart and could probably pull it off.

 **Before anyone asks, I looked online and Feng Jianjun's name means "Sharp blade/ wind" and "Building the army" in that order, which I find suits him, given the premise of the story. I know that internet search engines aren't always the most reliable source of information, but it's the best I got, so if anyone has an issue with that, let me know.**

 **Now, onto the story itself.**

 **Well, you can already tell this isn't exactly going to be child friendly, what with all the talk of rape, murder, and that beef-jerkyfied corpse we saw earlier. Don't get me wrong, this story won't get to the point of being considered overly-dark, but there's going to be some unpleasant subject matter, which is pretty much par for the course in the world of fallout. What? You thought just because it's not set in the fallout universe that I'd turn it down? Yeah- no.**

 **Those of you who have seen the visual novel can also probably tell the major differences between the scenarios with Kazuto and those with Roland.**

 **First off; the courier is far more vocal, confident, and aggressive than his cannon counterpart ever was, making for a far different experience where he contributed a lot. Also, because of his quick thinking and advanced technology, he managed to solve the problem without having to lie to the villagers. Depending on how the story progresses, this could have major ramifications in the future.**

 **On a similar note; some of you might have noticed a distinct lack of a certain red-haired kid. I told you this wasn't the world you were familiar with and that there would be major changes to it, and there have been. She'll actually come in later on in the story, though not too much later, so don't all you Rinrin fans start getting pissed because of a lack of energy in the group.**

 **Also, we see a little peek of what became of ED-E; and let's face it, you can't help but feel sorry for the little guy… at least that would be the case if he wasn't covered in armoured plating and capable of spitting lazers. Seriously; that little metal Sputnik wrecks legionaries like a kid with a magnifying glass fries ants. And not the giant sort.**

 **Now, I'm going to reply to any specific comments from the last chapter that warrant it.**

 **correnhimself316:** I imagine that many of the combat-able girls could easily match the courier in his current state, even with his cybernetics and perks all applied. In fact, I've seen some things from these ladies that will make for some… interesting interactions with Roland.

That said; I don't plan on applying numbers to anyone, including Roland himself. I feel like it limits the characters and makes them seem a bit too much like video game characters, rather than those out of a book or tv show. This also means I can take a few creative liberties with how he uses each aspect in the story, since I don't have to limit myself to in-game mechanics here.

I get that the courier had to be limited in the actual game in order to keep it fun, but I set this in an alternate reality after the events of the main story, so even he has surpassed the need for numbered limits.

Plus, power levels are bullshit anyways.

 **Nightshade McArthur:** I'm glad to know the art of the "slow burn" isn't lost on modern day authors, especially seeing as we live in a society where it's very much about instant gratification. I'll be sure to check out your story at some point.

Also, thanks for the correction with _ride_ of the valkyries, I'll edit the chapter later.

On that subject, I also re-read the first chapter and realized that there were a number of smaller mistakes that I'll really need to attend to at some point.

In terms of lengthy reviews; I really don't mind them. As long as you have correct punctuation and good grammar then I'm okay with being given any information you can. I mean, either you're giving me helpful criticisms, in which case be as thorough as you like, or you're just giving praise, which I'm all for.

 **Now, onto a new segment;** **Featured fanfics!**

 **This is a concept I tried in another fic but haven't gotten any feedback about. Basically, this is a section that will occasionally appear at the end of a chapter where I tell you about another fanfiction I'm aware of and write a short blurb about it to hopefully increase awareness.**

 **For this example, I'm going to advertise another of my on fanfics; From Ashes.**

 **This is a non-crossover story based in a RWBY AU and centered around an oc by the name of Alistair Greyfield, a young mechanist who uses his mind and skill with machines to fight grimm in the world of Remnant.**

 **For the most part; this story follows cannon events as seen through the eyes of Alistair and the other Oc's that comprise his team, though I intend to include non-cannon chapters that take place between the original episodes, for instance the timeskip between "The Badge and the Burden" and "Jaundice" story arcs.**

 **It's a light-hearted adventure with darker undertones, much like the original series, though you may find the prologue a bit more… serious than the rest of the story, but it's purely used to set up the character and his motivation.**

 **If you're fans of this story, then I would highly recommend From Ashes, simply because it's written by the same author… duh?**

 **Anyways, that's all I got for now.**

 **What did you think of the story? Have you read any of my other stories? What do you think of the "featured fics" segment?**

 **Let me your opinions be known in the review section.**

 **In the meantime, I'll see you in the next chapter! Buh-bye now!**

 **Oh, and uuhhhh… Stinger!**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

Roland and Kan'U watched as villagers scurried around the tavern, packing up belongings and gathering their families together. Those that would be going into the fight gave their loved ones a heartfelt goodbye, while those young couples who would be going into battle together said words of comfort and helped their lovers to gear up.

The courier sighed. "This is way too familiar…" he muttered to himself.

Kan'U turned to him with a quirked brow and turned to him. "What has you so worried milord?" she asked him, a thin frown on her face.

"Nah, not worried." he grunted. "Just…"

When the man trailed off, Kan'U caught on to what he was alluding to. "Melancholic?" she suggested.

"Don't know what that means, but sounds 'bout right." the man grunted.

The woman laughed a little. "It means… depressed." she explained.

Roland shrugged at that. "Not sad. Ya' gotta deal with nasty shit all the time back home." he explained "I guess you could say I'm just bein' reminded of some o' that shit."

They fell into a momentary silence, watching the people wander back and forth as they made their own preparations for the coming conflict. Once more, though, the curiosity got the better of her, and Kan'U turned back to her master. "Milord; might I ask what sort of… unpleasant things have you encountered?" she asked, making it a point to censor herself.

"Oh." He sighed in exasperation. "That's a bit of a long story."

"Perhaps an abridged version then?" the woman asked.

Roland scratched his neck. "Well, it might sound a bit weird outta context…"

The spearmaiden turned to him with a quirked brow. "With all due respect, milord; I am no fool. I will likely be able to discern what you mean."

Roland let out a puff of breath. "Well, if yer sure…"

"The rad-roaches are nasty bugs the size of small dogs, so're the rad-scorpions, which are 'bout the same but poisonous. Ya' got the molerats, big naked rodents that'll bite yer ankles off if ya let 'em get close. The Yao-guai are big, pissed off, milky-eyed bears covered in scabs."

"Most places will kill ya' if you wander off the road, and sometimes even if ya' stay on it. The west side is covered in flyin' bugs big enough ta carry off a small teen with venom that'll kill seven guys in seven seconds max. Headin' east would only throw ya into legion territory, where yer either killed or made a slave. Trust me, it can be just as bad for guys as it can fer ladies. North ain't no picnic either, seein' as the plants eat people. Figures the only green place out there wants ta' kill ya."

"Between the psychos who wanna burn the earth with explosives, the living metal boxes that'll turn ya to ash soon as look at ya', and the fact that most of the water will kill a guy in minutes, there's lots o' ways to die."

Roland laughed to himself as something occurred to him. "I once met a guy who wandered too far off course and ended up bein' chased up 'n down the wasteland by giant lizards that he says wanted ta' rape him. He ended up climbing a tree or somethin' and was stuck there for about three days 'till they got bored and wandered off."

He chuckled quietly. "He's a dumb bastard, but damn good with a shotgun."

Throughout his rant, Kan'U remained silent, but it wasn't until a few seconds after he'd finished that he noticed it. He quirked a brow and turned to look at her. "Err… Aisha?"

When Roland looked at her, he blinked in confusion upon noticing her expression. She was gaping like a fish, her mouth opening and closing occasionally in a failed attempt to make a comment and her eyes were bulging out, one of which was twitching wildly as she tried to comprehend what he was telling her.

"Uhh… are you alright?" he asked.

It took the woman a moment to recover, but after a while she shook her head and pulled herself out of her stupor. "P-Perhaps I might require an explanation after all…" muttered a frazzled Kan'U.

The man simply laughed. "Yeah, I figured you'd need it."

They were both drawn from their conversation when one of the villagers approached them. "Uhh, pardon…" he said tentatively.

The two turned to him. "Yeah?" asked the cowboy gruffly.

"We have the table set up like you asked." he replied.

The man smirked. "Good on ya'" he said, pushing himself off the wall and patting the man on the shoulder.

"You comin'?" he beckoned Kan'U, who shook her head again to clear it.

"R-Right." she replied, following his lead as he made his way to the center of the room. There, the villagers had set up one of the tavern's remaining tables, and on top of it sat a map of the prairies surrounding the village.

"So… shall we begin strategizing?" asked the spearmaiden.

Roland smirked and reached for a pouch full of bottle caps at his side. "Yeah… we should."


	4. Hiatus Plus Apology!

Divinity and the Devil's Luck

A Brief Apology

 **Soo… this is awkward.**

 **Yeah, I get that you were waiting for the next chapter of Divinity, but I have to be honest; I hit an unfortunate roadblock.**

 **Before we go any further, I am NOT abandoning this story. Rather, this is a hiatus notice.**

 **See, I went into this project not really knowing anything about Koihime Musou aside from watching the anime once a long time ago. I didn't even know there _was_ a game before this! Because of that, I had to actually watch a playthrough on Youtube as I was writing, and had no idea what I was in for in terms of plot or gameplay. Needless to say, that's where my issue stems from… sort of**

 **Basically, I just got to the part of the game where the town militia fight the yellow turbans, and I found the fighting in that game… lacking; especially in terms of descriptive text. So, because of that, I have to actually make up an entire battle scene between two armed forces, which is harder to do than a one-on-one fight, believe it or not. I'm trying to make it interesting to read while having it flow properly, and while I have a few ideas, it's still hard for me.**

 **I rarely update stories with any regularity, and long gaps between updates happen often enough that normally it isn't much of an issue, but given the popularity and demand of this particular story, I felt it was only courtesy to let you know why this is happening. Seriously; have you seen the update time for "From Ashes?"**

 **Yikes.**

 **On that note; while I chip away at this writer's block, I'll be working on other projects on my page to hopefully get the creative juices to start flowing. That said, I know that you'll not be satisfied with just that, so I figure I'd write up a little mini-chapter to tide over your appetite for more Roland, so I hope you enjoy.**

 **Oh, and I'll fill you in on the other stories I have on my page after this.**

" **Speech"**

' **Thought/Reading'**

" **Synthesized/Robotic Speech"**

 ***Onomatopoeia* (sound effect)**

 **(Author's Note)**

 **Xxxxxx Scene Change xxxxxx**

 **xxxxxx Scene Break**

 **I don't own Koihime Musou, Fallout, or any related products. So don't come bitching to me if Fallout 4 gets pushed back a month.**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

Roland and Kan'U watched as villagers scurried around the tavern, packing up belongings and gathering their families together. Those that would be going into the fight gave their loved ones a heartfelt farewell, while those young couples who would be going into battle together said words of comfort and helped their lovers to gear up.

The courier sighed. "This is way too familiar…" he muttered to himself.

Kan'U turned to him with a quirked brow and turned to him. "What has you so worried milord?" she asked him, a thin frown on her face.

"Nah, not worried." he grunted. "Just…"

When the man trailed off, Kan'U caught on to what he was alluding to. "Melancholic?" she suggested.

"Don't know what that means, but sounds 'bout right." the man grunted.

The woman laughed a little. "It means… depressed." she explained.

Roland shrugged at that. "Not sad. Ya' gotta deal with nasty shit all the time back home." he explained "I guess you could say I'm just bein' reminded of some o' that shit."

They fell into a momentary silence, watching the people wander back and forth as they made their own preparations for the coming conflict. Once more, though, the curiosity got the better of her, and Kan'U turned back to her master. "Milord; might I ask what sort of… unpleasant things you have encountered?" she asked, making it a point to censor herself.

"Oh." The man sighed in exasperation. "That's a bit of a long story."

"Perhaps an abridged version then?" the woman asked.

Roland scratched his neck. "Well, it might sound a bit weird outta context…"

The spearmaiden gave a mild scoff. "With all due respect, milord; I am no fool. I will likely be able to discern what you mean."

Roland let out a puff of breath. "Well, if yer sure…"

"The rad-roaches are nasty, murderous bugs the size of small dogs, so're the rad-scorpions, which are 'bout the same but poisonous. Ya' got the molerats, big naked rodents that'll bite yer ankles off if ya let 'em get close. The Yao-guai are big, milky-eyed bears covered in scabs."

"Most places will kill ya' if you wander off the road, and sometimes even if ya' stay on it. The west side of my home land is covered in flyin' bugs big enough ta carry off a small teen with venom that'll kill seven guys in four seconds max. Headin' east would only throw ya into legion territory, where yer either killed or made a slave. Trust me, it can be just as bad for guys as it can fer ladies. North ain't no picnic either, seein' as the there plants eat people. Figures the only green place out there wants ta' kill ya."

"Between the psychos who wanna burn the earth with explosives, the living metal boxes that'll turn ya to ash in the blink of an eye, and the fact that most of the water will kill ya in minutes, there's lots o' ways to die."

Roland laughed to himself as something occurred to him. "I once met a guy who wandered too far off course and ended up bein' chased up 'n down the wasteland by giant lizards that he says wanted ta' rape him. He ended up climbing a tree or somethin' and was stuck there for about three days 'till they got bored and wandered off."

He chuckled quietly. "He's a dumb bastard, but damn good with a shotgun."

Throughout his rant Kan'U remained silent, but it wasn't until a few seconds after he'd finished that he noticed it. He quirked a brow and turned to look at her. "Err… Aisha?"

When Roland looked at her, he blinked in confusion upon noticing her expression. She was gaping like a fish, her mouth opening and closing occasionally in a failed attempt to make a comment and her eyes were bulging out, one of which was twitching wildly as she tried to comprehend what he was telling her.

"Uhh… are you alright?" he asked.

It took the woman a moment to recover, but after a while she shook her head and pulled herself out of her stupor. "P-Perhaps I might require an explanation after all?" stuttered a frazzled Kan'U.

The man simply laughed. "Yeah, I figured you'd need it."

They were both drawn from their conversation when one of the villagers approached them. "Uhh, pardon…" he said tentatively.

The two turned to him. "Yeah?" asked the cowboy gruffly.

"We have the table set up like you asked." he replied.

The man smirked. "Good on ya'" he said, pushing himself off the wall and patting the man on the shoulder.

"You comin'?" he beckoned Kan'U, who shook her head again to clear it.

"R-Right." she replied, following his lead as he made his way to the center of the room. There, the villagers had set up one of the tavern's remaining tables, and on top of it sat a map of the prairies surrounding the village.

"So… shall we begin strategizing?" asked the spearmaiden.

Roland smirked and reached for a pouch full of bottle caps at his side. "Yeah… we should."

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **So, yeah. I hope that tided you over for… however long it takes to make this fic work.**

 **Now, I know that a number of you have been asking questions, and I was planning on replying to them in the next chapter, but I figure I would get it over with here and now so I don't just leave you all hanging. Plus, with how many there are, this short chapter is as good a time as any to answer them all**

 **Nightshade McArthur:** **I read your fic, and while it took some time to get used to that format, I think it's actually sort of interesting, both the story and your choice to just constantly update that one chapter rather than just make new ones. Aside from some grammar and pacing issues in the earlier bit, I like it and would recommend it for a casual read.**

 **Shirosaki Kizuro:** **New Vegas is like Fallout 3, but a lot of the systems have been revamped and upgraded. I like it, but it might not be your proverbial cup of tea.**

 **Lasse2731:** **You make an excellent point; no wastelander should be left helpless, and knowing how to make weapons in a desperate situation is a must.**

 **IFUCKTANKS:** **I know that this isn't a question, per se, but I think it needs to be addressed. I never take on a project unless I plan on seeing it through to the end; sure I may have trouble, especially going into things blind like I have here, but I still like to think I have some dedication to the craft.**

 **That said, I don't really have a solid "end" to the fic planned out, and I intend to keep it going into the foreseeable future, barring any unfortunate circumstances or plot reasons.  
**

 **Thaqif:** **Wow there are a lot of comments from you…**

 **(A) I have ED-E's appearance all planned out, so don't worry about that. As for the reactions he'll get… well, you just have to wait and see.**

 **I like to progress a story slowly, without making it obnoxiously so. That said; it might be another couple chapters before the little guy pops up. It all depends on how the game's plot unfurls.**

 **(B) I haven't given much thought to Roland's actual melee weapon, but I figure I would just have him use that bowie knife of his if he ran out of ammo and absolutely needed to fight. That aside, I think he would use his guns to pistol-whip anyone who got too close, seeing how his fighting style revolves around- Oops! Almost gave that away.**

 **(C) I'm going for a more Fallout 4 vibe with power armour. It isn't something that can just be hauled around in his bag, so he won't have it on hand until later in the story. Besides, he would be way too overpowered if he had it this early on, and that's hardly interesting. As fun as it would be to see him run over some yellow turbans like possums under a truck…**

 **That said; I think he would be able to customize his power armor. I think it would be like a contemporary cowboy working on his pickup truck.**

 **(D) I don't quite know what you mean by "advancing past" Chinese civilization, but I'll try to answer that to the best of my abilities.**

 **Basically, I plan on Roland making a few "scientific discoveries" throughout the fic. I can't tell you any more than that without major spoilers, but I can tell you it will be interesting… at least I think it will.**

 **(E) I plan on following the story pretty closely unless I think "I could probably do this better" so unless there's a character in the story that doesn't meet Kazuto in the original, then count on Roland meeting them.**

 **(F) I don't like killing off characters unnecessarily, mainly because I am really bad at dramatic scenes and fics, so I try to avoid those situations. That said, I am a sick son of a bitch, so some non-essential characters might get axed off in some horribly unsettling and brutal manner.**

 **In terms of lemons; I am also bad at those… like disgustingly bad. I might try my hand at a lemon, but if so then it will be in a separate, NSFW fic featuring certain characters that I might work on after dark when I'm feeling a bit… raunchy. Just don't expect quality porn from me.**

 **Though, if I go for it, then why not go all the way? I might have a foursome just for the hell of it.**

 **(G) Our over-prepared courier has a few things stowed away in ED-E's carrying compartment, the exact contents of which are to be determined. But anything he has on him personally is already stated in the first chapter.**

 **(H) I would think that he would have a jetpack on his power armor, but this is thus far my least thought-out fic to date, so I don't know how or if he will be using it. Of course, I would imagine the locals would think it's some sort of magic.**

 **(I) Ecchi? Uhh, dude, I am a massive pervert. So… duh.**

 **That said, Roland won't be a womanizer to the extent Kazuto seems to be, so it won't have the shamelessly perverted vibe to it that original story apparently has and while it will likely have some ammount of fanservice, it won't be shoved into your face at every turn… so to speak.**

 **(J) I said earlier that I don't want to limit myself by putting numbers or stats on Roland; this is post-game courier anyway so I would think that there's no way to measure his abilities using the in-game engine and any perks you see are just to help explain new concepts i'm introducing, like his translator. That, or for comedy.**

 **Otherwise, just assume he's an overpowered badass.**

 **(K) I don't know if he will fly a vertibird. I assume he will if only for the comedic value that would come from everyone's reactions.**

 **correnhimself136:** **I totally agree. The wasteland may be rough, but it's already established that using child soldiers is looked down on by most civilized people, though Roland might make an exception seeing just how skilled Rinrin is.**

 **As for anything else you said; I can't reveal those plot points… mainly because I haven't gotten past the first fight with the yellow turbans and don't know about them myself.**

 **xxxxxx**

 **Alright! So with that out of the way, I should be all caught up!**

 **Now, I know that it is irritating for me to take so long with these updates, but I ask that you all understand my plight here. See, I wasn't expecting the story to be even a fraction of how popular it is today, so I never really planned ahead with any of the plot or the characters, and only cracked down recently, watching the videos as I write out the story.**

 **None of this is planned ahead of time, I have no storyboard, and this story was originally planned to be a side project I did when I wasn't working on the other stories I have going. Of course, I didn't want to disappoint, so I rushed out a couple updates in a row, but I feel like doing so any further will lead to a drop in quality. I was on a roll and had a good flow going, which was why I managed to get the first two out so quickly and in such good quality.**

 **I think you should all know that fanfic started as a hobby of mine, and when I wrote, it was originally without any real constraints or rushing to ensure a timely release. Not to mention I wasn't trying to impress anyone with my writing skills, so the quality of it all was lacking, and even then it took a few weeks to finish a chapter if I got distracted by anything else.**

 **That said, I hope you understand why i might not update as frequently as you would like, and I pray that this mini-chapter satisfied you for a while until I can get more ideas flowing for this story.**

 **If not, I have a slowly-growing list of fanfics for you to check out in the event you just want to see more of my work and you don't care what it is.**

 **From Ashes:** **I already highlighted this in an earlier chapter, but for the sake of those who haven't seen it yet, this fic is basically my own team of original characters set in an alternate universe version of RWBY.**

 **The main character is a brilliant inventor and engineer, armed only with his mind and any scrap metal he can put to use. He's a kleptomaniac shut-in with a string of bad luck longer than Roman Torchwick's losing streak and an aversion to relationships with the fairer sex that can only be described as borderline gynophobia.**

 **I haven't updated it in a while because I've been working on this fic and having a few personal things to deal with in recent months. That said; I might get to work on it next.**

 **Expect it to be updated semi-frequently, seeing as it's somewhat popular.**

 **Crossed Fates:** **Basically, it's a semi-serious parody of anime tropes that's set in a sort of massive crossover universe from the perspective of a schizophrenic space-mercenary. Needless to say; it's an AU as well.  
**

 **I began the story a while ago, and it honestly wasn't very good to start with. But I have been rewriting it because, to be honest, I like the ideas behind it. It isn't very popular, but I still think it might be my favorite story at the moment.**

 **The main character plays out the role of a best friend/mentor to the main characters of the actual series' that it's based on, so it's less the story of discovering a new world and learning to live in it, as is the case with many stories, but rather the story of a man protecting that which he cares for and guiding his friends on their own perilous journey.**

 **Of course; it should be mentioned that it's tied to many "harem" anime simply for the comedic element that can come of it, which is the main focus of the fic. For those of you who aren't fond of the perversion, I've downplayed it to less... invasive levels and put more emphasis on humor.**

 **This is pre-written but, as stated above, the quality is shit, so I need to majorly edit it, and since it's not really popular, I have been neglecting it a little. I am currently in the middle of editing it now.  
**

 **Just another shitty story:** **Basically, this is a series of story "trailers" that lets you, the reader, see what sorts of stories I have planned and make suggestions for it based on what you want to see out of each, which story I should focus on first, and how you want to see it progress. In addition, you can even pitch potential story ideas to get my imagination going, if you think you want to see something made real.**

 **I only have one actual chapter out, plus a fake preview based on "Crossed Fates" just to establish one potential preview format.**

 **Now, before I go, I have one last thing to mention about this story. I might be implementing elements from fallout 4 when it eventually comes out.**

 **That means weapon crafting, customizable power armor, and elements from the game's plot will eventually be incorporated into this story, as will anything else I see that I would like to include. I don't know exactly what the game will involve, but we'll see what it has for us and you'll know when I bring in some elements from there to here.**

 **Well, that's all for now; I've got nothing else to say so I'll leave you to your browsing.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter! Buh-bye!**


	5. The First Conflict

**Divinity and the Devil's Luck**

 **Chapter 3: The First Conflict**

 **Alright! Yet another chapter of Roland's divine quest! This is going to be his first taste of combat in this new world, and so soon after entering it too; looks like no matter what the poor guy does, he can't escape the violence. Well, at least he's good at it.**

 **Now, I know that I said I would be taking a break from the fic, but I had a sudden inspiration! So not only did I finish this chapter, but I finished the most recent chapter of "From Ashes" so, that's awesome!**

 **So, I know you're excited to see the continuation of the adventure, and I don't have much else to say, so I'll let you get on with it.**

" **Speech"**

' **Thought/Reading'**

" **Synthesized/Robotic Speech"**

 ***Onomatopoeia* (sound effect)**

 **(Author's Note)**

 **Xxxxxx Scene Change xxxxxx**

 **xxxxxx Scene Break**

 **I don't own Koihime Musou, Fallout, or any related products. If I did, I'd proabably have looked up the selling price for that bottlecap collection before promising to send them a copy of Fallout 4.**

 **Oh and don't worry about chapter 2.5; I'll keep it up for those of you who like it.**

 **But without further ado; on with the show!**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

Roland and Aisha were leaning over a table in the middle of the tavern, examining a map of the village and surrounding area that they had set up there, with numerous bottle caps on its surface separated into two groups. One such group was positioned inside the village and was represented by red Nuka-Cola caps, whereas the other team was roughly north of the town and represented by Sunset Sarsaparilla caps. Of course, Roland was the only one who could read the text; Kan'U just saw metal disks with nonsensical scribbles on top of them. An overturned shot glass sat beside the cola caps, representing a third faction in the proverbial game.

Occasionally, one could hear the cluttering of people moving around outside the tavern as the people either packed their meager belongings for the exodus, or readied their weapons for the coming fight.

"The scouts have reported the Yellow Turbans setting up camp in the prairies to the north-east." said Aisha, gesturing to a number of sarsaparilla caps that were a bit upwards and to the right of the symbol that represented the town.

Roland frowned. "They must'a set up there to put 'emselves between this town and the next. I'd say it was ta' catch any townfolk as they escaped, but let's face it, they ain't that smart. My guess is that they wanted a convenient place to carry all their loot before heading off to their next plunder."

Moving the shot glass out from the left of the symbol, Kan'U then pushed it in an arc around the orange caps. "Because they likely didn't think that far ahead, we'll have the civilians exit through the western edge of town and circle around the Yellow Turbans to reach the next settlement." she explained her admittedly simple plan.

Feng entered just as she said that, sighing and shaking his head. "Let's not send them alone." he suggested "The Turbans might be stupid and poorly equipped, but if we underestimate them now, it'll end up biting us in the ass. It's better to be over-prepared than to lose the villagers because we weren't expecting scouts."

Kan'U nodded "True. I suppose I didn't think about it that way."

Pulling his hat off and running his hand through his hair, Roland let out a long breath. "I did." he said, garnering their attention "But we're stretched thin already. Can't go throwin' away our fightin' force like we've got an unlimited amount o' soldiers." he explained, much to the chagrin of Kan'U.

"I…" she started to say, but paused with a cringe. "Of course, milord. You are right." she conceded, clearly not liking the idea. Neither paid much attention as another villager slipped past them and began whispering in Feng's ear.

Roland sighed. "I know you don't like it, but we only got so many options here." he said, looking sympathetically over at her. His attention then returned to the map "If we were up against somethin' like the legion, then there'd definitely be scouts and we'd need to prepare; but these idiots 're all probably drunk off their fat asses right now. We can't spare any militia just on the off chance they smarten up and send a few guys to scout the area."

Kan'U, it seemed, saw the logic in her lord's words and nodded, somewhat more confident in the plan. "Yes, of course milord."

Roland then gave a small smile through his stubble. "But… I guess it doesn't hurt ta' think ahead. We should probably have the civilians pack light just in case they come across a patrol and need-"

"Actually…" interrupted Feng. "We might not have to worry." he pointed out as the villager stood off to the side.

This confused the two younger adults. "Waddya mean?" asked Roland.

Feng smirked as he pulled a few more cola caps from the pouch Roland had left off to the side and placed them by the civilian caravan. "Looks like we weren't the only survivors in town. We've been finding a few more bastions of people who held out in their basements and some of the back alleys." he explained. "We also had a group of hunters out in the field at the time of the attack. They hid in the forest until the Turbans left." he said, flanking the civilian group with militia forces.

Roland and Kan'U both lit up at the mention of other survivors.

"'twould seem that those brutes possess less of a numerical advantage than we thought." said the woman, clearly relieved, if not overjoyed.

The courier nodded in response. "Yeah-" he then paused and looked over the tactical map with a hum "That actually gives me an idea…" He then leaned over the table once more and began to move the playing pieces about.

Before anything more could be said, though, the front door was nearly broken off its hinges as a village man suddenly burst through it, running into the room and breathing heavily. "S-Sir!" he beckoned Feng, garnering the group's attention.

"What is it man?" asked the town guard, his brows furrowed in concern.

"T-The guys were looking through the rubble for weapons and supplies." He paused to breath.

"So? What happened?" asked Feng hurriedly, fearing the worst.

"S-Some of them found a few of the town guards holed up in the barracks!" he explained, causing the trio's eyes to grow wide in shock.

"What!?" crowed the older man, approaching the exhausted villager. "There were survivors!?" the shock and joy were both written clear in his voice and expression; he was not expecting anyone else to have gotten out alive.

"Yeah!" said the man, backing away from the excited guard. "A-Apparently they held out there when the Turbans started to overtake the rest of the fighting force. They grabbed what injured men they could and pulled them into the barracks." he explained.

Without another word, Feng burst into action and took off out the tavern doors, likely heading for the guards barracks. On his way out, he nearly bowled over the unlucky townsman in his excitement, but it was fortunate that the man had decent balance, seeing as he was able to catch himself and straighten out. He turned to the two others in the room, gave a curt bow, and scampered off after Feng, likely to help the recovery effort.

Roland chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "Look at that; the gap's shrinkin' even more." he said, adding even more caps to the pool of town militia as they returned to planning the attack.

"By the way, Milord…" asked Kan'U after a moment, grabbing Roland's attention. "What is this 'Legion' you referred to?"

The courier was caught off-guard for a moment, before seemingly coming to the realization that he'd spoken without thinking earlier. "Oh, right… I guess you haven't met them." he muttered "Let's just say they were a nasty bunch o' bastards and the world's better without 'em."

The woman accepted the explanation rather quickly with a nod. "Then I shall question it no further." she said, the memories of their previous conversation still fresh in her head. "Now what sort of plan did you have in mind?"

Roland smirked and adjusted his hat.

 **Xxxxxx Later; Village Square xxxxxx**

Feng stood before the remainder of the town guards, as one could tell by their singed armor and the injuries, though they were all relatively intact. It would have been odd under normal circumstances, considering that they were supposed to have been on death's door after the invasion. However, these were no normal circumstances.

"How are they doing?" asked Roland as he approached Feng from behind, Kan'U strangely absent from his side.

Feng sighed and rubbed his neck. "Well, they're all a bit shaken, but they still got plenty of fight left in them. Not to mention the lot of them are out for blood after their last encounter with the Turbans." he explained.

The courier nodded. "Good to hear they still got bite. And the injured?" he asked, keeping the question curt and quick.

"That medicine you gave them really worked wonders." the guard said. "A few of them were squeamish about sticking those needles in themselves, but got over it pretty quick when their scrapes and burns started to knit together. A few of the bigger cuts are still bleeding, but they're fine now, with the application of some bandages and a bit of booze…" the man explained, smiling as he looked over the troops. He then chuckled "We also used some to sterilize the wounds."

"Good." Roland said simply, a small smile of his own on his face as he began scanning the area around him to see what had become of the town square.

To say that the place had been militarized would be an understatement; there were armed militia running everywhere, carrying spears and swords of all sorts, and several guards were standing about amongst their ranks, giving orders and helping where they could. In several spots, Roland spotted guardsmen helping the militia train by telling them how to hold their weapons or how to stand when thrusting their spears.

"Looks like they're already provin' their usefulness." said the cowboy, watching some of the ramshackle soldiers march past, hauling bundles of arrows to the place where a few hunters were teaching a group of women to use bows. "Not to mention the hunters too."

Feng chuckled and scratched his head. "Yeah; we don't have enough time to turn the villagers into true soldiers, but they're taking well to the training, so they won't be totally inexperienced when the fighting starts." the man explained. He then grimaced. "Of course, if that was enough then we would've fought off the Turbans the first time."

Roland, however, waved off the other man's concerns. "I've seen enough shit ta tell you that the element surprise an' superior numbers can bring down most defenders. Remind me ta tell you about Helios One some day." he said, much to Feng's confusion. Before either one could start another interaction, something caught Roland's eye. He turned to his right upon noticing the said something and began to walk off. "Hey, I got somethin' to do. I'll see you later." he said to Feng, who gave him a wave as be turned back to what he was doing.

Roland made his way over to one of the nearby villagers and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey." he said, catching the young man's attention and causing him to turn around quickly.

"Wha-" he began, but froze upon noticing who was addressing him. He promptly snapped to attention and stood straight with a salute. "S-Sir!" he barked, startling Roland.

The courier was quick to recover, however, and cleared his throat. "Cut that crap. Ya don't gotta be so formal. This ain't the military, an' I ain't no general." he grunted.

The young man visibly relaxed. "Oh... Err, sorry." he said, looking embarrassed. "So what did you need?"

"I was wondering where you got that." Roland asked, gesturing to some sort of padded leather tunic the man was wearing. It looked like any other vest, but it was clearly made up of several layers of leather, had the occasional metal plate on it and the odd bit of chainmail descending around his waist and upper arms.

"Oh, this armor?" the man asked "The tailor is handing them out up the road. Same with these." he said, holding up the leather pads on his forearms, and gesturing to the ones on his shins with the butt of his makeshift spear. Roland also noted that said "spear" seemed to have been hammered out of a shovel that was then sharpened into a blade.

The duster-clad man nodded. "Right, thanks." he said, turning and moving off towards the indicated road.

It only took him a moment to find the aforementioned tailor, seeing as there was only one woman on the street doling out leather armor, so he was quick to approach her. She had set up in a market stall just outside the remains of her shop, which had certainly seen better days, but wasn't completely destroyed or burned like some of the other buildings in town were.

"Afternoon miss." he greeted with a tip of his hat "What're you doin' here?"

The woman looked up at him with surprise in her eyes, before averting her gaze. "Ah... Well..." she muttered, looking uncomfortable.

Roland quirked his brow at her behavior. "I ain't gonna shoot ya if that's what yer worried about. So you can speak up."

The woman cleared her throat. "R-Right..." she stuttered unsurely "well, I can't fight on the field; I have a sickness, and my bones have always been too weak for manual labor. That's why I became a tailor."

Roland rolled his eyes. "Ya don't _have_ ta' fight. If you wanna stick with the caravan, I ain't gonna stop ya." he explained. "I just wanted to know why an' how you were makin' this armor here."

The woman looked visibly relieved at his reassurance. "Oh. Sorry." she muttered, before clearing her throat. "Well, what I said was true; I can't fight, but I still wanted to contribute. I wanted to show those Turbans that we wouldn't be messed with so easily." she then held up one of the armored tunics she was making "So that girl told me that I could help by making armor for the troops."

"What girl?" Roland inquired.

His question was answered, however, when none other than Kan'U came out of the shop carrying a stack of simple leather jackets and unrefined leather. "I've more leather for the- Oh! Milord!"

Placing the leather on the table next to the tailor, the spearmaiden bowed courteously to her lord. "What brings you here?" she asked.

"I noticed your friend's handiwork." he said, gesturing to the woman, who had busied herself stitching together more leather. "So is this what you said you had to do?" he asked.

Kan'U nodded. "In a way. I had originally gone to the blacksmith to request armor for the people, however he lacks the skill to forge it." she explained.

"You keep saying it like that and I'll get a bad reputation in no time." said the gruff voice of another man as the stocky, balding blacksmith hobbled onto the scene, his arms full of metal plates, which he promptly delivered to the tailor, who thanked him quietly. He nodded to her and turned back to the younger adults.

"When your friend here approached me looking for armor, I told her I could only make horseshoes and saddles." he explained. "But when she started to mope, I told her that if she could find me some metal tools, I'd see what I could do about hammering them into crude weapons, so she did. They may not be the best quality, but it's better than what I saw some of the Turbans holding." he said with a scoff.

"I-I did not mope! Nothing of the sort!" cried an indignant Aisha, causing the smith to laugh boisterously.

"Anyways; we had some left over metal, so we made them into plates and studs for the armor, and even managed to grab some chainmail off the dead Turbans around the village." the blacksmith said. "Not like it was doing any good on them."

Roland nodded. "Glad to see we're better off than before." he said, turning to Kan'U with a smirk. "And _you_ wanted ta' go out right away this morning."

The woman scratched her head sheepishly. "I was excited to have a chance at doing some good. I got a bit... overzealous."

Roland just chuckled and shook his head.

"Sir!" suddenly, an armored villager came running up to the group. "The caravan is ready. Your orders?" he asked Roland.

The man nodded. "They don' t leave until I tell 'em to." he said simply, before turning to the blacksmith and tailor. "Work for as long as you think you can, then head over to the west road outta town when the sun starts to set. That's where the caravan is, and they'll stay there till about late afternoon. If your late, I won't know and I can't stop 'em from leaving."

The two nodded, shared a determined look, and got back to their crafts.

Roland, then turned to the tailor's makeshift stall and looked over at the pile of metal with a hum. "Hey, blacksmith." he said, getting the man's attention.

"Yeah?" grunted the limping man, who stopped and turned to him.

"You any good at makin' nails?" the courier questioned.

The smith and Kan'U exchanged looks with eachother, before the man turned back to Roland. "Uhh, yeah. It's kinda basic knowledge."

The cowboy smirked. "Then I'm gonna need to pay you a visit." he said.

"M-Milord?" questioned Kan'U meekly.

Turning to her, the male smiled under his hat. "Don't worry, I got this under control." he said, tipping his had slightly. "For now, rest up, eat, an' drink while you can. We've gotta prepare for one hell of a fight." he said, taking a swig from the flask he kept in his duster, before making his way off towards the town blacksmith.

 **Xxxxxx Later That Day; Northern Edge of Town xxxxxx**

The sun was sinking in the sky, hovering above them all like a great golden eye, beholding the events about to transpire.

Kan'U stood strong and proud at the northern road out of town, giving her an imposing air as she stood on an overturned wagon, overlooking the militia. The people were chatting amongst themselves, families were hugging eachother and saying their goodbyes as wives left their husbands and children gave their sniffling farewells to siblings or parents.

Once the last of the civilians were out of range, Kan'U cleared her throat. "Brave men and women, stand tall and listen to me!" she declared, causing the crowd to fall silent.

"Today, we march to battle, to reclaim what is yours from those who would take it from you! On this day, you show tyrants and bandits alike that we are the people of this land, and we will not be forced from it, nor will we have it stolen from us! This is our chance to make a statement! A chance to incite change! This isn't just your village that we fight for; but all of China, and the freedom of all downtrodden peoples just like you! Today, we show the world that they can fight back, and that with will, grit, and perseverance, not even the strongest armies might stand against our will!"

With that, Kan'U lifted her spear into the sky. "Now cheer; for our victory!"

Her call was met by a chorus of voices cheering and weapons rattling.

"Grahh!"

"Hell yeah!"

"Let's get out there!"

Such cries rang out as the citizens pounded their weapons against the ground or held them aloft in a victorious battle cry, hyping themselves up for the fight.

"Now then! Make your final preparations for combat, for there will be no time to stop and rest once we start moving!"

With that last bit of motivation, she stepped down and left her heartened troops to their final preparations before the coming battle, while she retired to a destroyed building, where she set up a small crate with a whetstone on it. She sighed and took a seat atop the box, where she then began to sharpen her spear's blade, taking great care with the weapon.

"You seem fond of that spear." said Roland as he leaned against one of the wooden doorframe, separating what was left of the main living room from one of the burnt-up bedrooms.

"Gah!" the spearmaiden cried, nearly falling from her seat in her shock. She returned to her feet swiftly and spun around, her spear out and at the ready. "Who-!?"

The woman stopped short when she noticed that Roland was the one who had snuck up on her. "Oh! Milord!" she cried in both elation and surprise… before realizing she had her spear up to his throat.

They stopped in place, both of them looking back at the weapon at Roland's neck, and though there was not enough pressure to pierce the skin, it still caused his flesh to dimple around the point. They stayed in place for a moment, before the cowboy cleared his throat "Uhm… Could ya' maybe pull that away?"

"Kya!" Kan'U shrieked in surprise as a look of fear crossed her features, before she dropped to her hands and knees in a kowtow, her forehead touching the ground. "I am unfathomably sorry milord!" she cried, her voice muffled by the floor.

Roland sighed "Yeah, yeah; stand up already. Trust me, this isn't the first time someone put a knife to my throat…" he glanced at her spear "Or somethin' like it."

Kan'U stood, looking abashed. "My apologies. You surprised me."

"Nah." the man said, brushing off her worries. "Best that you got good reflexes. Next time it might be some sorta spy." he grunted, before turning to look out the window.

Kan'U let out a sigh of relief. "My thanks, milord." she said, before returning to her seat.

Then, they fell into silence, with only the sound of the whetstone scraping against metal as the woman sharpened her spear. Neither was quite sure whether the silence was comfortable or tense, given the contrast between the relaxing atmosphere and the battle looming on the horizon; literally, seeing as the Turban encampment sat just beyond the edge of their view.

After a while, though, Kan'U broke the heavy silence. "If I may be so bold; they could have used some words of encouragement." she said.

"I think you did pretty well." Roland replied.

"Thank you milord!" replied Kan'U, beaming at the praise.

It took her a moment to realize that she had allowed herself to be distracted from her original point. "Wait… That is not what I meant." the retainer said, shaking her head. "Are you not the symbol behind which they are to rally? 'twould be more appropriate if you were the one to deliver such speeches."

Roland snorted. "I'm a heavily-armed mailman and a wandering, alcoholic vagabond. I never had to use pretty words or give big speeches." he explained gruffly. "The best I could've done is told them not to fuck up and get themselves killed out there."

Kan'U cringed visibly. "Perhaps, then, we might work on that at a later date." she replied, returning her attention to her spear.

"Yeah; We'll get right on that." the man replied with a roll of his eyes. "In the meantime, we'll leave those speeches to you."

Once more, they fell silent, but it was only briefly this time around, before Roland turned to Kan'U once more. "Anyways; you think that they're ready?" he asked.

The woman sighed as she stood, taking her spear in a shaky hand once more. "Well, they are hardly warriors, but neither are the Turbans, so we are now on even footing, at the very least."

"Well, it'd better be enough…" said Roland, his eye flicking towards the setting sun through a broken window "'cause we got three hours 'till we start the attack."

 **Xxxxxx Two and a Half Hours Later xxxxxx**

The two marched forward through the prairies towards the Yellow Turban camp, their militia force at their backs with weapons ready, before coming to a halt just as the enemy encampment was coming into view.

"Huh. That walk was a bit quicker than I expected." Roland muttered to himself.

Kan'U then turned to give a bit of last minute advice and encouragement. "All who are not archers, remain in pairs when facing the enemy!" she called "Remember to follow my commands and heaven shall surely smile upon us!"

This was followed by a unified cheer rising out of the citizens' ranks, their ramshackle army cheering confidently at their soon-to-be victory.

"YEAH!"

The woman continued her speech, spouting jargon about how the will of heaven was on their side, and how the gods (god?) were on their side, resulting in even more energetic responses from the villagers, who hefted their weapons in unified chanting of "Hell yeah!" and other such expressions of confidence.

Roland, however, remained rather neutral throughout the whole exchange, simply opting to check his guns and make sure that they were readily accessible. _'It's a pain that those bastards broke my pip-boy. Can't check my ammo or guns during the fight.'_ he thought with a scowl _'Oh well, I guess I'll shoot enough of them to make up for it.'_ He pulled his hand gun from his hip, looking it over for any imperfections or signs of damage before the battle, including checking the ammunition, before following suit with the silver block of a weapon at his other hip, then adjusting the bag on his back to feel its weight; it had gotten heavier since the pip-boy broke. As he did all this, though, his eyes scanned the crowd, silently taking stock of the "soldiers," as they were calling themselves.

' _They're lookin' better than I thought they would. I guess they're excited to go into this fight…'_ he mused _'I wonder how many are worried 'bout dying?'_ A frown crossed his visage, but he promptly shook his head. _'Don't matter. They know what they signed up for.'_

"Milord?" Aisha's voice broke him from his thoughts and he turned to her with a curious look.

"Yeah?" he asked gruffly.

"Is there anything you want to say to them?" the woman inquired, gesturing over to the group of townsfolk, who were looking simultaneously nervous and eager.

Roland looked over at them, and noticed that they were looking at him expectantly. He shook his head again, this time with a sigh. "Nah." he relied simply.

Kan'U looked at him imploringly. "Is there truly _nothing_ you might say to them?" she lowered her voice "No advice, or something to put their minds at ease before the fight?"

The man looked at her for a moment with a deadpan stare, before letting out yet another sigh, this one of frustration. "Twist my arm why don't you?" he grumbled, before stepping up to address the men and women before him.

"Alright; I'm no good at this speech thing, so I'll keep it short." he said, his voice projecting out over the assorted crowd. "Now, y'all have been oppressed, insulted, and hurt both mentally and physically. Trust me; I know the feeling, since I've been there plenty o' times before." he explained. "I've been put through shit you wouldn't believe if I told ya' and I've been hurt a lot." He scoffed to himself "Hell, maybe one day I'll tell y'all a story…"

When he said that, a few of the villagers in the crowd laughed a little, and Kan'U looked at him oddly, but didn't make a scene of it as he continued. "I know how you feel, because every time I was pushed into the dirt and kicked 'till I was a bloody mess; and I wanted nothing more than to take the bastard responsible and wring his neck. I wanted revenge." Realizing he was getting a bit worked up, he paused and took a moment to organize himself, sighing as he did so. "Look; I know you wanna get back at the Turbans for what they did to you and your families. I can see that every one of you is burning for a chance to get at 'em and do some damage, but you gotta remember _not_ to let it get the better of you." he warned them. "If ya' go in there and your heads ain't clear, then you'll mess up; you'll make mistakes, and end up getting yourself and everyone around ya killed. So remember, the best way to get your payback is to go in thinkin' straight. I learned a long time ago that ya' gotta take it slow, keep a cool head, think about what you're gonna do, and make sure ya' do it well. Let your hate drive ya' but don't let it blind ya'. Otherwise we're no better than these dumbasses who burned your homes down."

"The pain from last night is still fresh, and I know that mistakes happen anyways, but if y'all keep your cool and stick together…" he paused only briefly. "Well then; we all might just come outta this alive an' kickin'. Ya hear?"

As he finished, the group before him fell silent, contemplating his words.

Roland then turned to Kan'U with a shrug and an expression that clearly said _'Told you I was bad at this.'_ But that faded when he noticed her giving him a light smirk of victory, much to his confusion.

That only grew when the people raised their weapons up and with one loud cry, they shouted "Yes sir!" each one with a grin on their face. A few people started to laugh and cheer even, and soon that grew into a cacophony as they let loose a battle cry, of sorts.

"It seems that they have taken your advice to heart." said Kan'U, stepping up behind him.

"Yeah… mind explainin' how exactly?" the courier asked in confusion.

The woman shrugged. "I could not tell you. Perhaps 'tis thine experience that gives them confidence." she explained.

"So basically, because I know what I'm talkin' about, they think I'm gonna lead them to victory." the man said with a hum.

Kan'U shook her head. "No… they _know_ thou shall lead us to victory."

Roland laughed lightly at her reasoning. "Either way, I guess that'd make them more confident." he grunted, before glancing over his shoulder. "Let's just hope that means somethin' in a fight." he said, turning around to fully face the Yellow Turban camp.

Kan'U followed suit, only to tense up as she noticed the Yellow Turbans mobilizing an attack force from their camp. "It would appear that we caught their attention with the racket we were making." she said "And that they have more forces than previously thought..."

Immediately, the joviality drained from the crowd and was replaced by tension.

One of the older men amongst the militia, a middle aged merchant, scowled. "It looks like they've been recruiting from the nearby towns." he said, pulling the sword from his back.

Roland sniffed, not wavering in the face of the approaching force. "I'd say there's a couple hundred of 'em, give or take." he said.

One of the young ex-nobles in the crowd began to cower. "O-Oh no… this is _not_ good!" he said, what bravado he might have had fading along with the color in his face.

"You're right. It is bad." said Roland, catching the attention of everyone else.

"Milord?" asked Kan'U, staring at him in confusion.

The man passed by her as he stepped forward to look over the approaching enemy. "'cause with this few of 'em, y'all might not be able get in any shots before I kill 'em all myself." he boasted, drawing his gun from the holster at his hip.

Initially, they were surprised by his confidence, but it would seem that it was infectious, and those among them who had lost their courage once more regained it, drawing their weapons in preparation. Kan'U had been momentarily stunned, but quickly shook it off and withdrew her spear as she began shouting orders.

"Hold your positions and wait for them to come to us!" she barked out in a commanding voice. "Spears at the front, deflect their charge! Swords, get behind them and get ready to move in once the initial attack is repelled! Archers, when they get in range, start pelting them!"

The woman then placed a hand on her lord's shoulder. "Are you sure you wish to fight with us?"

Roland grinned beneath his hat. "If I just sat back and watched, my ass would get numb." he joked "Plus, luggin' around all this ammo is bad for the back. It's about time I shared the burden, don't ya think?" He then turned to stare down the approaching Yellow Turbans with a confident glare and a cocky smirk.

The woman chuckled nervously. "Y-Yes; of course." she stuttered _'Such confidence is… somewhat intimidating.'_

Shaking it off, she fell in line with the spearmen. "Archers! Ready thine bows!"

 **Xxxxxx Meanwhile; With the Caravan xxxxxx**

"This is bad…" said the blacksmith from his seat on one of the caravan's carts, watching as a small contingent of Yellow Turban militia barred the road, though it was more of a disorganized rabble than anything close to an organized military force.

That said; they clearly weren't very observant of their surroundings, because the ox-drawn wagons were sitting only about a mile or so away and they hadn't been noticed in the slightest. Granted, they were hidden behind a hill, but the sound of the caravan should have been enough to tip off any half-decent military force, so it went unsaid that they were clearly not taking the job seriously enough to warrant any effort.

"It seems that way…" muttered the tailor beside him with a hum. Suddenly, something seemingly occurred to her as her face lit up "…Or maybe we can use this to our advantage."

The man turned to her with a quirked brow. "What do you mean?"

"Just follow my lead." she said, before turning back to a group of fighters standing by the caravan, all of whom were visibly armed with bows and leather armor; clearly militant and not suited for sneaking past a roadblock.

"Pardon me" she beckoned them "Could you get into the wagons near the back and throw tarps over yourselves?" she requested sweetly.

A few men looked at each other with raised brows, but shrugged and relented to her request reguardless, likely assuming she had a plan. So, the lot of them jogged up to the back of the caravan and pulled up the tarps covering the various grains and less-expensive goods that the Turbans had seen as worthless in their initial raid and had left behind. They climbed into the wagons and allowed some of the other villagers to cover them up, making the militia blend in near-seamlessly and disguising them as a large group of famers. The blacksmith looked curiously at her and sat back with his arm behind the seat of his cart, acting casually.

The villagers began to move up casually at the tailor's behest, finally grabbing the attention of the Turbans ahead. Some of the men were playing cards on an upturned wagon used to block the road, but one of them saw the approaching mass of people and alerted the other four to it with a few muttered words and a gesture. They all looked over at the people as one, before another guy reached over and smacked a sleeping guard on the shoulder, causing him to wake up with a start. Judging from his position, he was supposed to be watching the road.

A few of the men argued amongst themselves quietly, before seemingly choosing two of their group to step forward and stop the carts as another four silently moved to either side of them, and two stood behind the upturned carts.

"Alright. Who are you and where do you think you're going?" questioned their supposed spokesperson as the wagons pulled up.

The blacksmith, who was sitting in one of the leading carts, answered for the group. "Just a group of farmers." he replied quickly "Taxes are getting really bad down south and we're moving up north to see if they're any better."

The tailor was quick to add in her two-cents "It was getting to the point where running a shop down there almost wasn't even enough to survive, so we used what little money we could scrape together and bought enough wagons to haul what little we had left." she explained rather convincingly, thinking on her feet. "We had them hooked up to livestock and were on our way."

It was then that one of the thugs leaned in to whisper to the boss. "I guess they don't have anything worth taking. Government probably got all the good stuff for their damn taxes." he said with a scowl.

The leader snorted. "Check a couple of the wagons anyways, just to be sure. Just don't waste too much time." he replied, before turning back to the civilians. "Alright, you can go, but we gotta check for contraband first to make sure you aren't carrying anything illegal." he said, weaving a swift lie.

The tailor smiled. "We don't have anything but grains and rice. That's hardly suspicious, is it?" she asked.

The man shrugged. "Standard procedure." he replied smoothly "With all the violence, we're trying to control the unorganized rabble around here, and part of that is checking for weapons or something that could be used to smuggle them." He then gestured for the men to start checking carts, so they did.

"Oh?" the woman asked "But you don't seem to be imperial soldiers. I assumed you were a band of militia."

The man chuckled. "Haha, well the imperial guard has been tied up with the recent violence, and riots in the capitol and nearby cities, so they hired mercenaries to form a sort of people's army."

"Ah. Well if they didn't raise the taxes so high, maybe there wouldn't be so much unrest." the tailor replied tersely.

"Well, it takes money to run an empire, I'm sure you know, so I can sort of understand their point of view." replied the insurrectionist, keeping up his charade.

They continued this argument back and forth, with the blacksmith watching on in absolute confusion as he watch them, in a confusing turn of fate, debating the merits of their opponent's point of view. _'I'd ask why she's complicating things, but I swear she's enjoying it._ ' he mused, before sighing and resting his head on his fist. _'As the pale guy would say; This bullshitting contest has gotten to the point where I can smell it from here.'_ he thought in a deadpan.

' _Speaking of which, I wonder how he's doing.'_

*Bang!*

Suddenly, everyone started as the sound of a distant thunderclap caught their attention.

"The hell was that?" muttered the smith.

One of the nearby yellow turbans looked up and scanned the horizon. "Not a cloud in the sky… weird."

 **Xxxxxx Meanwhile; at the Battleground xxxxxx**

*Bang!*

The yellow turbans leading the pack tripped over a pair of bodies as two of their allies fell in battle before the might of Roland's godly power… or so it seemed from the perspective of the villagers.

In reality, the cowboy fired a pair of shots from his hip, causing two of the men on the front line to collapse on the ground, one shouting and cursing as his kneecap shattered beneath the force of the bullet. The other man simply fell backwards after a spray of blood exploded from the back of his head, staining the faces and shirts of those directly behind him and sewing chaos almost immediately in their ranks.

Everyone had jumped out of their skins at the sound of cracking thunder, but it wasn't long before absolute panic began to spring up in the enemy ranks, forcing their startled commander to try and wrangle his troops, his shaky voice lacking any sort of force behind it as he attempted to shout orders. On the other hand, Kan'U was quick to recover from the start, having previously witnessed Roland's weapons for herself, so she whipped around and started issuing her own orders to the troops beside her.

"Thus you see the glory of heaven's wrath for yourselves!" she declared in celebration "Now form three lines as ordered! Spears, then swords, then archers! We shall see victory this day!" she cried out, forcing the people out of their stupor and allowing them to organize into the aforementioned rows.

The spearmen braced themselves and widened their stances as they were shown, with the town guard setting an example with strong grips and their spears tucked under their arms, but not braced to their torsos. The line of spearheads it formed was uneven, due to the fact that the majority of them were once farming implements hammered to points, and only a few were actually salvaged from the guard barracks back in the town.

Behind the line of hammered hoes and reshaped scythes stood the swordsmen of their group, who didn't look too much better than their spear-toting counterparts; though it was less accurate to call them swordsmen, than it would to use the term "Melee fighters" to describe their second line.

The so-called swords were essentially just various short tools forged into crude blades of metal on the ends of sticks; assuming they weren't just brandishing kitchen knives, then people could be found using anything from small sickles, to wood-cutting hatchets, to broken shovels sharpened into crude axes. Really, it was a sight to see, and it certainly wouldn't fly if they were fighting an actual military, but compared to the Yellow Turbans, one could honestly argue that the villagers were better equipped. They were stood in various shaky stances depending on what weapon they were holding, but it seemed that the guards were far better off than the civilians in that respect, seeing as they held actual swords and had prior training.

The ones who were by far the best off were the archers. There was apparently an excess of hunting bows, given the number of non-hunters scattered among their ranks, but even then those bows were clearly well-cared for; polished wood, decent padding around the grip, and strong looking strings were clear evidence to that fact. Honestly, their archers were clearly far better equipped than even the Turban archers, who appeared to be brandishing bows looted from actual soldiers. Obviously they weren't caring for their weapons, and previous combat had left them worn with battle scars, which was not something a hunter would need to be concerned about.

Speaking of which; the Turbans seemed to be recovering from their panicked flight.

Indeed, the charge had begun again, though it seemed that a small number of them had immediately fled the battle upon noticing that their comrades were dying to an invisible force, likely the ones who were right next to those unfortunate victims of Roland's projectiles. Still, though, the charge persisted and they were baring down on the village militia, who were preparing for war.

"They have regrouped, but take heart, for they now see that the wrath of heaven is on our side!" cheered Kan'U, before beckoning towards their foes with her spear. "Now archers! Fire!" she commanded, and the archers did just that, small though their force may have been. "They have seen the wrath of heaven's messenger! Now it is time that they see the wrath of the common man!"

When the arrows started to rain down on their heads, the Turbans with bows then began to return fire at the behest of their own commander, causing several of the villagers on their side to die, crumpling under the force of the barbed tips. Many of them, however, survived the onslaught simply for the fact that they were wearing leather to protect their vital organs, which perturbed the enemy commander, who began shouting at his own archers, commanding them to aim for their heads. He fell silent once more when another round of gunfire rang out through the battlefield, shaking the morale of the disorganized rabble and causing their formation- if it could be called that- to loosen up.

*Bang-bang-bang-bang!*

Four of the archers went down in rapid succession as Roland aimed down the iron sights of his revolver, forcing those men around them to stop firing for a few moments and leaving them vulnerable to another salvo from the villagers that tore through some of their numbers when they flinched away, exposing their necks.

The arrows continued to fall around the combatants on both sides as the Turbans finally approached the militia line, only to hesitate as they were met by a wall of spears, causing them to stop a few meters back. A few brave soldiers were quick to dive in, their youth and hot-headedness causing them to believe they were invincible, but that was soon proven folly when several spears jabbed into their arms and torsos. A few took spears to vital spots and were left to bleed out or simply dropped dead, but a number of them were left alive, and that was where the melee combatants stepped in.

The spear-wielders parted in places to let the infantry line through, and it soon turned to a bloodbath as guards swung swords, nobles brandished kitchen knives, and farmhands hacked away with hatchets or lunged in with pitchforks. Heads clad in yellow cloth rolled to the ground and men fell to their knees, grasping bleeding rends in their bodies as they, too, fell, dying slower than the rest. Of course, this dampened the spirits of the wiser Turbans, but they were murderers and bandits who killed at their pleasure, and unlike some of the villagers, they didn't flinch at the sight of blood.

As expected, the younger or higher-class villagers cringed at the sight of the bodies, and that gave the Turban line all the opening it needed to take advantage of the broken ranks of the village militia, who had parted to let their swordsmen through. In moments, the turbans pounced on the exposed backs of the infantry, springing on them with chipped swords and broken spears in hand, killing at least a dozen.

This move was not without sacrifice, however, as they had forgotten the reach of the spear line, which then thrust forward its wall of thorns with enough force to double the enemy casualties and break up their own formation. Those bandits who hadn't been caught up in their own eagerness were soon driven back as a ramshackle phalanx advanced over the corpses of the dead in a wall of bloody gardening tools. The villagers pushed forward, and the Turbans retreated, but this advance only lasted a moment, as several of the militia were tripped up by the bodies of the dead, or their ankles were grabbed by some of the more resilient bandits, who used the last of their waning strength to spite their unfortunate victims by breaking their line.

It proved effective enough, as the Yellow Turbans quickly capitalized on this opening and once more lunged forward in an attempt to finally break the enemy formation and overwhelm the militia with sheer numbers and force of arms. They would have succeeded as well, had they not forgotten one major element in this battle, which reasserted his presence with a bang.

*Bang! Bang!*

Or rather; with two.

Roland had reloaded his weapon and once more unleashed a couple bullets into some of the leading bandits, leaving them scattered momentarily and allowing the villagers to reform their lines. A few archers also took aim at the near targets and shot down a number of enemy swordsmen, further disrupting their ranks.

 **Xxxxxx Meanwhile; With the Caravan xxxxxx**

"Oh hell!" cried one of the Turbans as he turned to the direction of their camp. "There is no way that's thunder. What is it?"

The Turban commander turned to his allies. "We've got maybe a couple hundred guys back at camp. There's not much that can take them on except the imperial guard." he said with an annoyed scowl. He paused, however, when he remembered whose company he was in, and looked back to the tailor, who quirked a brow. The man gave a small smile "Theoretically speaking, of course." he quickly covered up. "But it's not like they'd be here. If they were, then we wouldn't need to be."

"Oh, but of course." the woman replied.

"Shit!" shouted one of the Turbans at the back as he uncovered one of the wagons. "Fire the signal arrows!"

The commander hesitated "What are you talking about!? What is-"

*Crack!*

He didn't get to finish his sentence before a hard left hook met his face, knocking him out cold.

"I may only make horseshoes, but I'm damn good at what I do." bragged the blacksmith as he pulled his left glove off, revealing that he had one of said horseshoes under it.

"Fuck!" swore one Turban as he and his friends made to move towards their quivers, which rested near the roadblock.

The tailor, however, held up a finger and waved it side-to-side. "Uh-uh" she chided playfully as the hunters threw off the tarps covering them, then rose up with arrows trained on the bandits.

Two of the men were already behind the carriages, however, so they ducked down in an attempt to take cover, where they grabbed the bows from their sides and attempted to nock some arrows, wrapped in rags and soaked in alcohol. They paused, however, when they realized that they were suddenly surrounded by a row of bowmen that seemingly appeared out of nowhere, all of whom were essentially at point-blank range.

Needless to say; they dropped their weapons and stood up in surrender.

"Now, I suggest keeping your hands where we can see them." called the tailor as a number of other villagers approached with rope to tie them up.

The blacksmith chuckled to himself. "Signal arrows, eh?" he grunted "So that's why you had us hide."

The tailor just nodded and smiled sweetly. "That's right. Couldn't have them alerting the others, could we?" she explained, before turning back to the men, who were being bound to a cart. "Now; why don't you go ahead and tell us about any other roadblocks waiting for us."

 **Xxxxxx Outside the Turban Camp xxxxxx**

The battle was turning ill for the village's forces, with militia being run down by the greater numbers of Yellow Turban bandits as the formations were broken by the relative inexperience of the villagers. They were soft and would pull punches or flinch at gore, which left them prey for the ruthless and merciless brigands, who slaughtered people on a regular basis. There was only so much that could be done in a few hours of training. Because of this break in ranks, Roland was left out in the open, and standing on a hill from which he was firing down on the enemy soldiers.

Of course, because of this he was easily noticed by a number of enemy rabble, who tried to attack him, but it was fortunate for him that his superhuman retainer was present, as she leapt to his defense. Sweeping her spear horizontally, she managed to either split open or knock back several of the advancing fighters, forcing the remaining ranks to retreat in fear.

"Nice one!" called Roland before he was forced to stagger backwards, with three spear-toting Turbans assaulting him. "Ah hell!" he grunted, dodging back from a second attack "I wasn't meant for anythin' more than a bar brawl."

Kan'U turned to see what was wrong, and gasped in terror, worrying for his safety. "Milord!" she cried, charging forward with her spear at the ready. "Step ba-" she was silenced, however, as the man ducked under a spear and darted behind the man holding it, where he grabbed him by the chin and the base of his neck, and with a swift jerk-

*Crack!*

The Turban soon found himself wearing his head backwards, a sickening crunch heralding his abrupt death. Though this didn't put off the other two; one of whom charged him with the spear forward in an attempt to gore him on the blade, or at least force him on the defensive.

Reaching into his left boot, the cowboy then pulled free his bowie knife and spun around, allowing the spear to pass him by. When he spun to face the assailant, he planted the knife firmly in the man's wrist, where the blade pierced through flesh and came out the other side in a gout of blood.

"Gaahhh!" the man shrieked in pain at the initial injury, but the shout came even louder as the cowboy wrenched the knife in the wound, moving around his foe until the man's arm was behind his back. Using his unfortunate victim as a shield, he put the bandit's body between himself and the third spear, as the final Turban came in to try and save his friend, only to end up puncturing his lung.

The third man turned pale upon realizing that he just stuck his spear into the ribs of his own comrade, but he didn't have much time to contemplate it before Roland raised his gun and brought it down on his head with immense force, cracking his skull like an egg and dropping the spearman to the ground. He smirked and ripped the knife from his meat shield's arm, allowing the body to drop to the ground at his feet.

Roland turned to his retainer with a quirked brow. "You say something?" he asked.

Kan'U stood there in astonishment for a moment, blinking in surprise, before slowly shaking her head. "N-Nothing important milord." she stammered out, before clearing her throat and regaining her composure.

"Alright then." the man said with a shrug, before turning his gun on a pair of Turbans behind him and, without even looking, shot each one in an eye socket, sending their bodies crumpling to the ground in separate heaps.

"R-Roland, Kan'U!" called out Feng as he approached the pair, grabbing their attention.

"Hey, Feng. Glad to see ya' still standing." said the courier casually, before firing off another couple shots into the Turban ranks, causing numerous enemies to leap back in fear. They were then taken down by the surrounding villagers, who capitalized on the moments of vulnerability as they turned their backs and wiped out a small group of enemy infantry.

"I'd like to say the same, but I don't know how long that'll still be the case." the local man replied, ducking down to avoid a stray arrow. "Our people are being pushed back, and we don't know how long they'll last!"

He then gestured out to a large cluster of Turbans who had split off from the main force at the back and were circling around from the west, going for a flank on their forces. "We're outnumbered by a lot more than we thought! We weren't prepared for this kind of force!" he said, grabbing a bow from his back and firing out into the crowd of Turban brigands.

Roland snorted. "Maybe _you_ weren't, but Kan'U was." he said cryptically, replacing his revolver in its holster and grabbing the blocky silver gun from his belt. "Not ta' mention I got my own crowd control." he quipped as he lifted the gun towards the enemy ranks.

He pulled the trigger, and the small weapon began to glow with an infernal ruby light. Kan'U and Feng looked on in anticipation and awe as energy began building up at the open end… only for it to fizzle out moments later.

Roland balked and blinked in surprise. "Huh?" he grunted. "W-Wait. Don't tell me those idiots tried to mug me with a shitty laser pistol like this!" he shouted indignantly, flailing around his arm with the weapon aimed at the rapidly-approaching enemy force.

"M-Milord?" questioned a perplexed Kan'U. "Perhaps thou should find a more reliable-"

"Goddamn, motherfucking piece o' shit! Ya' better fire or I'm gonna run over there and ram ya' up someone's-!"

"Milord!" shouted Kan'U with a blush on her face. "I-I doubt that shouting vulgarities at it will make it-"

*Pew!*

"Eep!" the retainer squeaked in surprise as a bolt of florescent red energy leapt from the end of the weapon and lanced a couple dozen meters across the battlefield, and through one of the Yellow Turban bandits… then another… then another.

By the time the bolt ran out of energy and dissipated, five of the lightly-armored targets had been impaled right through their hearts by a burning bolt of energy, leaving smoldering holes of charred flesh in place of healthy, beating hearts. The first two weren't even that lucky, as the energy dispersed inside of their very cellular structures and reduced them to ash, letting their belongings fall into a heap amidst the dust that remained of their former owners.

Needless to say, the charge was routed as even more Yellow turbans fled the field screaming about demons and shining hellfire.

Feng and Kan'U gawped, as did the majority of the combatants who witnessed the weapon, and its effects on the human body.

Roland looked down at the gun, the barrel having been burned a bright orange and melted to the point of uselessness. "Note to self… apparently threatening it makes the damn thing overcharge." he muttered sarcastically, before looking over to Kan'U with a cocky smirk.

The woman sighed and raised her hands to concede her defeat. "I'll not presume to know thy strange weapons." she admitted "'twould appear that they respond to threats."

The man shrugged. "Yeah; it also helps if you give 'em a good kick." he said with a chuckle.

Kan'U perked up. "So… are they sentient then?" she inquired inquisitively. Roland just laughed at the question, confusing the poor woman even further.

Feng was off to the side, his mouth agape and his eye twitching mildly. "T-These two…" he muttered as he tried to comprehend what he just witnessed. He managed to get his wits about him as the sounds of battle began to pick up again, a few combatants having decided to use the confusion to get in some cheap shots, thus sparking a new round of fighting between the two sides. "Uh, hey!" he said, drawing the attention of the younger adults. "Look; they might not be trying to flank us, but those archers are still chewing us up here!"

Roland smirked. "Don't worry; we figured this'd happen. We gotta plan." he said cockily, stowing his laser pistol at his belt once more, only to pull it away again as it touched his hip briefly. "Gah! Hot!"

Feng scowled. "Well whatever it is better come soon!"

Just as those words left his lips, however, the scattered Turbans to the west soon started to scream bloody murder as they all began dropping dead, a hail of arrows raining down on them from the hills.

"What!?" shouted the Yellow Turban commander across the field as he watched the men he was just trying to rally falling over in gouts of blood. Rising over the hills was a long line of archers, all painted in various shades of green and wearing cloaks made of green-dyed cotton. They spanned the northwest area of the battlefield, and rained down hell upon the enemy forces. "They had reinforcements!?"

Roland just grinned and Kan'U gave a wide smile as she explained her plan to Feng. "I had the majority of the hunters following behind the caravan. In the forest as cover." she said, before pointing over at the flanking archers, as they mowed down the Turbans. "They stopped once they were past the Turban camp and took up a flanking position."

Feng grinned as he caught on. "That dealt with the caravan security, and gave us a better position on the superior enemy numbers!" he completed, connecting the dots.

"Precisely!" cheered Kan'U.

Roland laughed a little. "Yeah; she's a bright one 'n all. But, this fight ain't over 'till we win." he said, raising his plasma pistol and batting an approaching Turban in the jaw with it, promptly causing the man to reel back and drop his weapon as he covered his face, screaming in pain. Roland then drove his bowie knife into the man's neck, shutting him up permanently.

Feng smirked. "We've pretty much already won. Their archers are dropping almost as fast as their morale, and our people are regrouping. I'll be surprised if it takes longer than a few minutes to either drive them off or run them down." he explained.

"True…" Roland said, though he scoffed and reached into the bag on his back. "But I could probably end this faster."

Both of his companions looked at him with confusion clearly written on their faces. "You have an idea, milord?" questioned Kan'U, and the man nodded.

He withdrew a small metal box from the bag, painted blue with faded cartoon characters on the front, not that many could see them through the black electrical tape, numerous wires, and the egg timer strapped to it.

"I whipped this little puppy up back in the village with some spare parts from my bag and some bits I got from the blacksmith." Roland explained. "I toss it hard enough, and I can take out the commander and all those guys guarding him. Thing is; I gotta hit the bastard first."

Feng scoffed. "That far off? No way could you hit him without a bow. And that thing doesn't look like it'd fly very far."

Roland turned to the other male. "You a betting man?"

The guard quirked a brow. "Yeah, I like to gamble sometimes." he admitted, before he caught onto what Roland was getting at and a smile crept up on his face. "Twelve Yuans says you couldn't make it half way there."

The courier smirked. "I'll take that bet." he said, winding the egg timer on the front.

' _I'll assume that's what they call caps…'_ he mused to himself. _'That, or I'm gonna need to take a job later.'_

Winding back, the duster-clad man took care to measure his shot, and the wind direction. Feng stood impassively, waiting for his money, and Kan'U watched curiously as her master took aim. The whole while, the timer ticked down, ready to blow the moment it hit zero. Then, with the superhuman strength, the man let loose, flinging the small container clear across the battlefield.

Feng balked. "Now way…" he muttered, watching the metal box arc high into the sky, before descending towards the commander and his guards. "There's just no way he could…"

All words died when a distant cry of "Ow!" echoed out over the plains.

 **Xxxxxx**

The Yellow Turban commander blinked in confusion as picked up the box that fell at his feet after hitting his head, drawing the attention of the six men around him. "Huh?" he grunted. "The hell's this?" asked one of the guards as they inspected it with curious glances and furrowed brows.

The lot of them turned to eachother, then they looked out over the battle, where they saw Roland standing, tipping his hat to them.

Xxxxxx

"It appears as though he made the shot." quipped Kan'U with a light smile. "Not that there was much doubt on th-"

*Ka-boom!*

An explosion rocked the battlefield, causing all fighting to come to a halt. Archers stopped firing, infantry stopped hacking at eachother, and spearmen felt their weapons go slack as they witnessed the huge cloud of dust, kicked up by the explosion. When the smoke cleared, all that was left of the Turban commander and his guard was a scattered pile of severely-burned corpses, riddled with nails, heated until cherry red and searing into their flesh.

"Probably a bit too much gunpowder in that one…" Roland mused, but then his lips quirked upwards into a smile. "Never liked wasting caps on mines. But damn if it ain't effective." he chuckled.

Kan'U and Feng had to take a moment to register what happened. "Wha-What was that?" squeaked out the spearmaiden, her eye twitching.

Feng tried to respond, but wound up just opening and closing his mouth, gaping like a fish.

"Ahem."

It took Roland clearing his throat loudly to snap them out of their stupor. "Weren't we in the middle of something here?" he said, gesturing towards the group of Yellow Turbans, who were looking dumbfoundedly at the burnt crater where the body of their commander lay, surrounded by his nail-riddled guards.

"Uhh- err… right." said Kan'U, clearing her throat in order to recover from the surprise of the explosion. "I suppose 'tis just another of your surprises, milord." she said with a sigh, before stepping up beside him.

She raised her spear high and called out. "Listen here Yellow Turban bandits!"

Her voice carried over the entire field and called their attention to her, and as they turned, they saw her standing low on a hill before them, and above her was Roland standing at the top with the sun at his back in a brilliant halo of gold. It appeared that the battle had gone on for so long that the sun had actually started to set behind them, and with the still-hot laser pistol in Roland's hand, it appeared as though he was holding a shard of sunlight itself.

Indeed; it made for both an imposing and marvelous sight as Kan'U continued speaking to them. "Thou hast spread immeasurable misery in thy rebellion, and in attempting to break free of the oppression of the government and improve thy lives, thou hast only succeeded in worsening the lives of those around thee!" she declared, before gesturing up to Roland with her spear.

"This man who stands before thee has been sent from the heavens above to hunt down and scour evil from this land in burning fire." she stated boldly, and Roland nearly choked on his own breath.

"W-Wait; we're still on that?" he asked quietly, his eye twitching.

"Hush now, milord." the woman chided him, before clearing her throat once more and addressing the crowd again. "His powers have been made plenty apparent to you all, and with them he could strike down every last one of you!" she cried, causing the Turbans present to flinch away. This drew a smirk from the woman. "However, he is not without mercy, and has given me instruction! If thou dost wish to live to see another dawn, simply relinquish thy weapons and prostrate yourselves before him. You will be bound and face justice at the hands of those thou have wronged, but 'tis a far better fate than weathering his wrath!"

A number of Turbans looked hesitant, and the entire militant force lingered for a few moments, looking back and forth between eachother for some indication as to what they should do, but without a commander to issue orders, they were lost.

It would appear, though, that Roland's patience was running thin, so he gave a frustrated growl. "Listen up you lot!" he shouted, the force of his voice causing them to start and stumble back. "I'm not in a mood to stand here for an hour while ya' stand around with your thumbs up your asses! So either you drop your weapons or I'll drop you! Got it!?"

Without another moment's hesitation, spears and swords all clattered to the ground as everyone present knelt before him… including his own troops.

Kan'U gave a nervous laugh. "Eheheh… 'twould appear that your threat was more effective than intended, milord." she said, scratching her head.

Roland gave an exasperated sigh. "At least it worked." he said, before turning to the woman. "Let's get the lot of 'em tied up and move into the camp. We got some stuff to take back."

The young retainer nodded with a smile. "As thou wish, milord." she said, turning back to the troops and issuing orders, gesturing with her spear and over-all just taking charge on his behalf.

Feng, meanwhile, strode up beside Roland. "I have to admit; I thought we'd all be dead by this time tomorrow. Even after you two showed up, the odds just weren't on our side."

The cowboy chuckled, tilting his hat up. "Odds don't mean shit in the end. It's luck; that's why you never bet against me." he informed the other man.

The guard just gave a laugh. "I'll keep that in mind." he said, staring out over the activity below as the villagers rounded up the Turbans and moved on the camp.

He was broken from the moment, however, when Roland nudged his side. "Speaking of which; I made that throw."

Feng balked. "Wait- I- err…" he stammered, waving his hands in front of him.

"A bet's a bet." Roland said, and the guard sighed, slumping over.

"Yeah, yeah…" he grumbled, extracting the coins from his pocket and placing them in the cowboy's outstretched palm.

Roland smirked and gave a chuckle. "Like I said; never bet against me." he repeated, towing most of the coins in the pouch he kept all of his bottle caps in.

He did, however, hold one of them out in front of himself, examining it briefly. _'Huh, well that's a new one…'_ he mused _'Looks like I ain't in Kansas any more…'_

The man sighed and put the last coin away. "I'll figure it out later…" he muttered, before going down to join Kan'U in raiding the Turban camp and securing the prisoners.

Figuring out where he was could wait; for now, they had more immediate problems. Plus, if he needed to get home in a hurry, he could have someone fly in from up north and pick him up in a vertibird…

Right?

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **And that's a wrap!**

 **(Editor's Note: Wow, I can see myself improving with each chapter, even if I'm pretty sure certain little bits just seemed to be left out when I copied over from my other computer. That said; I also noticed there's a lot of smirking going on. It's an accurate descriptor, but I am glad that I widened my vocabulary.)**

 **Whew! I have to admit that the chapter played out a bit differently than I expected. But I'll go onto that in a minute; first, comments!**

 **Now, there's only a few here, and the majority of which I already answered to the best of my abilities, at least without giving something away for the future plot, but there are a couple comments I want to address.**

 **Thaquif:** I can't tell you anything about other forms of contact between Koihime Musou and Fallout, because that would be venturing into spoiler territory. Buuuut… ah what then hell, I'll give you a hint.

Let's just say that we haven't seen the last of the think tank.

 **Shirosaki Kizuro:** Oh ye of little faith… and much common sense.

I never abandon a fic, no matter how bad my writer's block is. This is due to the fact that I never take on a challenge I don't have the utmost confidence that I can finish.

 **That said; any hiatus I go on could be considered "Indefinite" simply for the fact that I'd rather release one high quality update a month rather than several shitty ones. I mean, I hate it when an author who used to be a decent writer suddenly realizes that people are reading his stuff and decides to prioritize quantity over quality in order to keep his readers happy.**

 **Then what you get is a single page of poorly-written garbage that no effort has been put into and no editing has been applied to. Rife with spelling and grammatical errors, loopholes like you'd not believe, and a general shift in tone to something stupid and ridiculous, even for a comedy fic.**

 **That is what I want to avoid with my work, so a couple weeks without an update doesn't mean it's abandoned. I mean, hell, it's been a couple** _ **months**_ **since I updated my RWBY fic, and there's another chapter coming out the day I'm posting this one, so I ask that you don't just give up on a fic just because I'm not updating in a while.**

 **But enough of that; onto my thoughts on the chapter!**

 **I honestly thought I would have to put in a lot of flashy moves and big fights in order to pad out the chapter to meet my quota, but even with the ending being cut short like this, I'm over my typical goal in terms of pages per chapter.**

 **On the topic of that ending; yes I know that it seems like I rushed it a little, but I didn't want it to continue too far past that point. So, rather than prolong it with extended dialogue or making the battle take a bit longer to the point where it could come to a decisive close, I actually had Roland settle this battle the way you'd expect of the infamous courier of the Mojave wasteland.**

 **Hucking a makeshift nail bomb across the battlefield and into the face of the enemy commander.**

 **The battle itself was less focused on the military fighting and more on the personal combat, as you'd expect given how it went in the original material, and despite my best attempt to try and implement more of a wider view of the battle. Still, you all** _ **did**_ **get to see some more differences between Roland and Kazuto, seeing as the former is the motherfucking courier, and anything that gets in his way is getting nuked!**

 **Sometimes literally.**

 **Not to mention that you saw how much of a difference it made when they took a little time to prepare, rather than rushing out blindly like they did in the visual novel. I mean; sure I may have added in a few extra Yellow turbans just to even things out, but given that they lost to a bunch of mildly organized villagers with minimal planning and no training in the VN, I'd say that those numbers didn't equate to much.**

 **Onto the final topic here; the future of this fic.**

 **Now, you've seen what I can do when I'm inspired, and that's more often than you'd think, but you have to know by now that I have other projects to work on, and other fanfics to show some love to, so it's obvious I can't just abandon them for this one.**

 **On that note, I'm not going to be updating this fic so regularly any more. Now don't get your panties in a bunch, I'm still going to update, but it's going to be more at my leisure, whenever I get inspiration or find the drive to work on it, rather than trying to squeeze out that last bit of creativity like toothpaste out of a tube. This means it will be interspersed amongst updates for my other fanfics, and if you want more of me in the meantime, you'll have to go read those. But once again, I know you might not like my other work as much, so I understand if you're willing to just wait for more updates to this fic instead.**

 **Of course, there's a number of stories on the way too, many of which were inspired by drake202 just like this one was. If you want to know more about them, give me a review saying as much and I'll drop a preview in "Just another shitty story" for you to peruse at your leisure.**

 **Anyways, that's all I got for now. Thanks for reading and sticking around despite the lack of content, always appreciated.**

 **And I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **Oh, and uhh… stinger!**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

ED-E floated through the forest, scanning the trees for any sign of movement.

Occasionally, he would detect something, and whip around to face it with a beam of ruby laser charged up and ready to fire, only for it to die as he caught sight of a small animal.

He stared at the little bird, sleeping in its nest, but turned away from it as he registered no threat from it. If he'd turned back, however, he would have caught a masked figure standing up beneath it, wearing the false nest and bird on their head. However said figure soon disappeared into the brush once more, as though fading into shadows.

Of course, the little eyebot was unaware of the figure following him as he made his way towards a wall of light laying just beyond the confines of the forest, where he broke out of the tree line, only to pause as he was met with the image of a small village ahead of him. If he had a heart, it would have leapt in joy as he witnessed the image.

Without hesitation, he bolted for the village as fast as he could manage.

And there were many screams of terror that day…


	6. Political Business

Divinity and the Devil's Luck

Chapter 4: Political Business

 **Sooo… fancy meeting you here…**

 **Okay, I know that I said I'd update my RWBY fic more before doing this one, and I was honestly in the middle of making the newest chapter, but I ran into a roadblock there and had to find something else to do until my inspiration for that came back.**

 **Unfortunately, that plan went out the window between a busy Christmas vacation and the ever-present demon known as writer's block… and now here we are. At least a couple months later and no update. Not to mention the chapter of the graphic novel I'm on has absolutely nothing important happening, so I basically had to make most of this up on the spot.**

 **So, yeah, no chapter for a while.**

 **Uhh… Sorry?**

 **Well, to hopefully make it up to you, I've been working on some side-projects in order to try and reclaim my creativity, and with how popular this story was despite its original dubbing as a "side-project" I should be more popular then H.P.- Fucking- Lovecraft by week's end.**

 **Anywho, I'm going to shut up now so we can get to the real meat of the story.**

"Speech"

' _Thought/Reading'_

"Synthesized/Robotic Speech"

*Onomatopoeia* **(sound effect)**

 **(Author's Note)**

 **Xxxxxx** Scene Change **xxxxxx**

 **xxxxxx Scene Break**

 **I don't own Fallout, Koihime Musou, or any related products, otherwise there would be adult mods for the xbox version of fallout 4… I mean would you expect anything less from me?**

 **And, without further ado; on with the show!**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

*Crick. Crack.*

Joints popped as Roland stretched his arms over his head and twisted his neck back and forth.

The sun was just rising past the distant mountains as morning fell over the former camp of the Yellow Turbans; still rife with loot from their various conquests, unsorted and just lying about in piles all over the place. Of course, there were numerous villagers sorting through the assortment of trash and treasures, but that wasn't what he was there for.

There was a special task waiting for him in one particular tent.

He lifted open the flap into the largest tent at the very centre of the encampment, where he was met with the image of three Yellow Turbans, bound and kneeling in the middle, while Kan'U sat on a half-broken bed, watching them with her spear in-hand.

"They give you any trouble?" he asked, his steely gaze falling briefly over the Turban prisoners.

One was a thin waif of an individual with a light complexion, very delicate features, and short hair tucked up into a yellow bandanna. Another was a well-built individual with a grim, stoic expression and his hair done in a short ponytail down to the middle of his shoulder blades. The third was a scrawny man, looking around nervously and sweating profusely, resembling something like a rat in human form.

The courier's spear-toting retainer stood and greeted her lord properly as a superior, with a curt bow. "None at all Milord. They have been… oddly docile."

Roland sighed at her demeanour, but ultimately just shook his head and left it at that.

"Alright, now why don't you three tell me what I wanna know." he said, looking down at the Turbans.

Two of the ex-bandits flinched away from him, looking almost terrified of his presence, not that one could blame them after the lightshow he gave during the battle, but it still annoyed the man to the point where he scowled under the shadow of his hat. One of them, however, was far bolder than the others and found the courage to look up at him, with an unwavering stare. Roland's eyes met those of the pale, short-haired Turban and held his gaze, where they stayed unmoving and stoic for a full five minutes, the tension slowly building up.

"…"

"…"

Suddenly, the prisoner stood.

Kan'U flew into motion, and the two other Turbans present looked up in surprise, giving only brief, wordless exclamations; but Roland…

He stood perfectly still, even as his retainer held her spear to the back of the prisoner's head. Perhaps it was his lack of a reaction that kept the woman from drawing blood, or maybe she didn't feel the need to kill a bound prisoner, but for whatever reason, the former terrorist was spared that day.

The insurgent stood there for a while longer, staring into the cowboy's steely gaze for roughly another minute, before smiling sadly and giving a nod, seemingly satisfied with what was found in the courier's eyes. Then, much to the surprise of the lady retainer, the Turban bowed deeply at the hip, despite the discomfort likely being felt, the prisoner's hands bound awkwardly, likely to cause intentional discomfort.

"Sir." he said in a youthful voice. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

Kan'U stared in shock at the man, barely even moving as the other two swiftly stood and followed suit. "Wh-What?"

After a moment, Roland sighed. "I should've brought my whiskey for this…" he muttered, before pulling up a chair from nearby and sitting on it backwards, his arms crossed over the top of the back rest. "Alright. Start explaining."

The Turbans knelt before him, unable to do much else given their bindings, as their leader began to speak. "Where to begin…" he muttered to himself, clearly unable to find the right way to present his thoughts.

"How 'bout you start with why you're here." suggested Roland.

Kan'U seemed to be in agreement with the idea. "Indeed. If thy intent was to spy on us, perhaps standing on an open hill was not the best of ideas. Though I doubt that was your purpose at this point."

"W-We weren't attempting to spy on you." said the short man with the nervous demeanor. "The T-Turbans in this territory are broken and scattered. There's nobody to return to with the information." he explained, his voice shaking slightly as the cowboy's hawklike gaze shifted to him.

"That's true enough." agreed the tan foreigner. **(1)** "But that doesn't answer the question."

The apparent spokesperson of the bound men was the one who piped up. "It may not be apparent, with how we've been acting, but the Turbans never wanted to become feared, as we have been." he explained, both him and the two other men bowing their heads in shame. "At least not all of us… Many of our number did, but they came into the fold later on, and most are dead now anyways."

Kan'U wasn't taken in by their plight. "Yet you threaten, steal from, rape, and murder your fellow countrymen. If your intent was benign, then thou hast failed miserably." she said coldly.

Naturally, this did little to lift the spirits of the Turbans, but regardless, the apparent leader pressed on. "We never intended for it to turn out this way, but it… spiralled out of control." he elaborated. "Originally, we just wanted to show the government we wouldn't be bullied by their tax collectors or their military. We even wiped out a few bandits to show that we could do their job better and gain support… But running a military, even one as small as the Turbans, is expensive; we needed food, water, supplies, and weapons, all of which are both costly and hard to come by, with the government banning merchants from trading with us, and the taxes on farmers making it impossible to buy enough from those who will sell to us…"

He paused, his expression somewhere between a cringe and a scowl. "In the end, it just became easier to take what we needed." It was the taller one who completed the thought stoically. "On top of that; there was no way we would be allowed to go back to our lives without being hunted down, and even if we could, the government would make it hell for us, so it was either steal or starve."

Roland sighed and leaned back in his chair for a moment of thought. "Y'know, that's easy enough to explain, and I could forgive you if it ended there." he said, before leaning back in and giving them a hard look. "But we all know that a lot of those raids weren't just outta need."

The prisoners seemed to deflate even further, if that were even possible. "It started that way." said the head of the trio "But, like I said, it spiralled out of control. Turns out that most of us weren't any better than the soldiers that were bullying us."

The hostage's eyes began to actually well with tears as he tried to explain his actions. "It's just; when you're given power over someone else, you… lose yourself to it. I've never touched a woman on our raids, never killed a child, but I've broken into shops… destroyed people's livelihoods… burned down villages… and it only got worse when we got desperate for troops and started recruiting those bandits we once exterminated." he began to choke up as he recalled his own actions. "And the worst part is that I didn't realize I was becoming no better than the imperials… Hell; we weren't even that any more… We were… _are_ just common thugs."

The tent fell silent for a while, the air growing heavy between the quiet grieving of the ex-raiders and the cold expressions of their captors. Kan'U looked between them and her lord with an impassive frown, stoically waiting for any kind of signal he might give with grim determination evident in her demeanor. Roland, on the other hand, was totally neutral and unreadable, as though so deep in thought his face didn't reflect his inner contemplations.

After a long pause, he finally stood again and began to pace, throwing the chair aside so he didn't trip over it. "Well, I guess your motives were understandable to start with… Nobody likes the government 'round here it looks like, and I'm not one for authority to start with. Really, the lot o' you would've deserved a medal or something for standing up against 'em." his expression turned dark then. "At least _before_ this whole operation went downhill." he muttered.

"But, surely this doesn't excuse their crimes?" asked Kan'U with a frown.

Roland looked to her with a quirked brow. "When did I say that?" he asked, his eyes turning towards the bound trio.

"No… they still need to be punished." he said, pulling the bowie knife from his belt.

The shortest of the men looked scared as he witnessed this aggressive act. "W-Wait.. You're not really-" said the coward, stammering in fear.

The apparent figurehead of the trio, however, turned to the man who spoke with a harsh scowl. "Quiet you!" he hissed out, before turning to the fore again with a sombre look.

The beefy one, who had been mostly quiet until that point, closed his eyes and bowed his head. "This is the least we deserve." he said in a solemn baritone.

"You'd be right there." said Roland, twirling the knife and walking around behind the trio, Kan'U moving back to make way for him. "Now, for your punishment." before he even finished, the knife came down.

*Thwip*

Suddenly, the ropes binding the trio came loose and they found themselves free, much to their combined surprise, as well as that of Kan'U, who stood behind Roland with a dumbfounded look on her face.

"I-I… what?" asked the spokesperson of the ex-Turbans, looking between Roland and the red marks on his delicate wrists where the ropes once wrapped tightly around them.

The cowboy scoffed at their surprised expressions. "I'm not gonna kill you." he said "That'd be way too easy. No, you've gotta work for it; make it up to the people ya' hurt by fighting for 'em and making sure they're nice and safe." the man explained, crouching down in front of the group.

"Until you make up yer debt to the community, you work for me." he then clarified. "That goes for any other of your friends that don't want to join their commander in that crater."

It took another moment for what he said to sink in, but once it did, the three men immediately sprung to their feet. "Yes sir!" they cried at once, saluting as though in some military regime.

"With that spirit, you'll pay back that debt in no time." Roland said with a smirk on his face. "Now, onto business."

Grabbing the chair from the corner, he sat himself down in it once more, his retainer swiftly taking up a position behind him and to his right while the men knelt before him respectfully. "First question; How many others are there?"

 **Xxxxxx Several hours later; Ruined village xxxxxx**

The town was being rebuilt by the people who lived there prior to the Yellow Turban attack, and while it seemed to be progressing slowly, at least the streets were cleaned and the debris was removed, leaving only the burned-out buildings as they were being repaired.

Roland and Kan'U were walking down the streets, watching as the villagers went about the construction. Though, it seemed that they were less focused on the reconstruction than they were on a conversation being held between them.

"Milord…"said a timid-looking Kan'U. "I believe you should rethink the villager's offer."

The man turned to her with a brow quirked in curiosity. "What?" he asked, pausing for a moment as he thought about what she meant "Oh. You mean when they asked me to become… what'd they call it…? Magic-state?"

"Chief Magistrate." the woman corrected her master. "And yes, I believe you should take them up on that."

"As fancy as the title sounds, I refused when they asked five days ago, and every time I'm asked I keep refusing, so why should I accept now?" asked the courier.

"I just feel as though you are being a bit hasty in your refusal." she explained, clearly concerned. "That is to say; you are adept at speaking to people, despite your insistence to the contrary, and while I believe you may have let them off too easily, your handling of the Turbans was evidence enough of your prowess as a leader."

"That's not me being nice or anything." the man replied hastily with a thoughtful frown on his face. "This village needs protection, and those assholes killed off most of the guards, not to mention destroyed the defences. We need the extra manpower to keep any other threats off the villagers while we rebuild."

The courier looked off to the side at a father as he took a stack of roofing tiles from her with a smile. "So, if a few ex-bandits die in place of good, honest folk, then no harm done."

Kan'U was surprised by that comment. "Milord, the Turbans have been beaten and scattered. What other possible threats do you speak of?"

The cowboy seemed to grow a bit tense, his back straightening as he walked. "It's like you said; the Turbans are scattered, but they aren't gone. Despite what the guys back in that tent said, I'm pretty sure there's more than just their little group hiding out in the hills." he explained warily, keeping his voice down so he didn't spook the villagers. "Plus, this was just one camp we smashed. You think that'll be the only group? There are other territories out there with more Turbans, so if a few of them were to trickle in and start raiding the local area, I wouldn't be surprised."

Still, the man wasn't done with his list of worries. "Not to mention the ever-present threat of bandits… then there's the fact that the empire is liable to send out soldiers to try and suppress rebellion in the region, which I'm sure they won't be nice about… we also need soldiers to drive off some of the nastier critters out there." He lifted his hand up and then began to count on his fingers the number of threats to the village, a worried look on his face.

The spearmaiden nodded determinedly beside him. "Thou dost have a point, milord." she replied. "Though, that simply means that you have excellent foresight. Perhaps thou art more suited for the position than you think."

Removing his hat, Roland ran a hand through his auburn hair and gave a sigh. "Look; I'll be honest and tell you that I've been there before." he said, somewhat irritated. "Honestly, I just came from a place where I've been playing leader for a couple years now, and I'm not all that good at it." the male admitted.

This clearly surprised the dark-haired woman. "I would never have guessed." she said, her eyes set in a curious gaze.

Feeling her silent question, the courier elaborated. "I don't like the responsibility. There's always something I'd rather be doing and I can never concentrate on all that political garbage that comes with the job."

"You have the charisma for the position, though." the lady retainer counter-argued. "Surely that might count for something."

"I guess you're right there; I'm very good at _looking_ like I know what I talk about." Roland said, blatantly admitting ignorance.

"You mean to say that you are less informed than you seem?" inquired the woman.

"I mean I'm good at bullshitting." he replied.

Kan'U was clearly confused by the phrase. "Bull what-ing?" she asked, her cheeks a slightly red tinge at the profanity.

"It means I'm good at faking. Y'know, putting up a front and pretending to know what I'm talking about." he explained. "Basically, I'm good at lying."

The Chinese woman looked put off by the comment. "I… I see." she muttered. "You said you were a leader in your homeland. So, I had assumed…" the woman trailed off.

The courier scratched his neck and looked to the side, attempting to avoid eye contact. "I wasn't lying when I said that… but I don't think it could really be called a leadership position. Y'know?" he explained.

"See, where I'm from, the territory I 'rule' is small, and home to a bunch of different factions." the man said with air quotes to emphasize that he used the word "rule" in the loosest possible terms. "Instead of sitting on a throne and giving orders, like your emperors, I set up a sort'a… council. Normally the people can do whatever the hell they want as long as they ain't killing each other and pay a tax to help fund certain areas of the government. Basically, I just go around collecting money and assigning it to different projects."

"I don't even understand half the crap needed to run a government, so my computer takes care of all those complicated duties." he continued.

"What is a com… err…" the woman stuttered, a blush on her face as she failed to pronounce the word.

"Com-Pew-Tur." the male sounded out for her. "Basically, think of him as a…" he trailed off, trying to figure out how he'd explain the concept of an artificial intelligence. "A mirror with an… artificial… person inside that does paperwork."

The retainer seemed surprised by the description, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. "Such an unfathomable magic." she said in awe. "Truly your people are impressive, milord."

"Yeah… when they aren't blowing themselves up." he muttered sarcastically.

"Pardon?" she asked.

"Nothing." the man quickly dismissed. "Where was I again?"

"You were talking about the… computer running your country." the spearwoman reminded him, pausing as she got a feel for the foreign word.

"Right." the man said as he picked up where he left off. "Well, like I said, he took care of most of the work, like dealing with businesses and infrastructures, and keeping everything runnin' smoothly." he explained. "Really, I don't have to do anything unless someone wants to talk to me directly. Then all I do is tell them what I think they wanna hear and try to keep them happy if I can manage it."

Kan'U looked to be deep in thought as the courier continued his explanation. "You say that you had many different factions in your homeland, yet you let them run free and do as they wish? How on Earth did you prevent the land from falling into conflict? How does one organize such a loose government?"

"Like I said, we set up a council. Whenever there was some big conflict, we had the leaders meet and we talked things out instead o' coming to blows. I just let 'em hash it out between themselves and looked all imposing to keep 'em in line." the male elaborated. "If there was ever a real big decision that needed making, I'd call together the leaders and we'd democratically vote on what we'd do."

"At the risk of sounding repetitive; what is-" It seemed the man pre-empted the woman's question.

"It's a government system where, put simply, you vote to make big decisions." he once more explained to the woman. "Basically, instead of having one leader make all the decisions, we take feedback from a group, in this case being the faction leaders, and they tell us what they want or what would be good for their people, with the majority vote getting their say."

"Oh! Such a brilliant idea!" Kan'U exclaimed, drawing some attention from the working villagers, her excitement evident.

"Sorry, what?" asked a confused Roland.

"Theoretically, this concept of democratically-"

"Democracy"

"-could be used to make the voice of the people heard! That way as many people as possible are kept happy, and the government no longer ignores their plight!" she said, practically vibrating with energy at the very notion.

"Well, I figure it could work, not that I'd know where to start." the man muttered thoughtfully. "I mean, it's not like I can just step into the capital, put a bullet between the emperor's eyes, and tell the whole civilization to change how things work."

"We can concern ourselves with that when the time comes." replied the warrior woman. "For now, though, I suggest you start with becoming magistrate, and go from there."

"H-Hey! Weren't you listening to what I said!?" asked a flustered Roland, trying to keep his composure. "Wait. What do you mean start with?"

"I have been." replied Kan'U simply. "It is for that exact reason that my determination has solidified. Everything you have said thus far has only shown your prowess as a leader and your ability to bring happiness to the people."

"Look, I get where you're comin' from, but the point I was trying to get through was that I don't actually _do_ anything at home." Roland explained to his retainer. "All I do is look tough and talk bullshit. I'm just a… a figurehead, not a leader."

"Is that not what we initially agreed to before coming here?" asked Kan'U with a small smirk.

"I…" Roland tried to rebuke, but was cut off by the female warrior.

"Milord. With all my respect, you are giving yourself far too little credit." she said with determination. "You may not understand the political aspect of running a government, but you understand public relations better than anyone I know, myself included. If needed, I will do the paperwork and act as your… computer… does in your homeland."

The courier looked unsure at first, a frown on his face. "I…" he tried to object, only for his voice to catch in his throat. "Oh dammit… _fine_. I'll stay on as this magi-guy; but only until we can find someone better to do the job."

Aisha's face lit up with glee, seemingly disregarding the second part of the statement. "Milord! I swear that I shall not let you down."

"I _really_ hope so." the man said with a nervous chuckle. "Otherwise, I'm screwed."

The woman paused for a second. "'Screwed', sir?"

"It means I'm in a less-than-favorable position." he explained in a deadpan.

"So many interesting terms." muttered the spearmaiden. "I hope to one day discover the fine nuances of your language."

This caused the courier to smirk sarcastically over at her. "That's one way of putting it."

The conversation came to an end, however, when the pair heard the telltale thump of something striking a soft surface with great force, causing them both to turn and look over to their right. There, they were met with a large fenced-off yard, where several scarecrows had been set up and painted with red circles at points that would have been vital or crippling areas on a human being, some of which bearing the signature bandannas of the Yellow Turbans, as though to fuel the wrath of the archers.

These effigies were being fired upon by a row of villagers, armed with various types of bows and quivers full of arrows, and being instructed by what looked like a hunter, who would adjust their stances occasionally while giving out commands.

"Your feet are too far apart." the cloaked man told one villager in a quiet grunt, tapping his heel with the end of a wooden staff, causing him to straighten up and take a more proper stance for an archer.

The man was a bit shorter than Roland himself, standing half a head below him, and was clad in a simple brown tunic, leather pants, and a long green cloak with a hood; he looked like a typical wayfarer stereotype and likely wouldn't stand out, though that was typically the point of camouflage.

"Who's this guy?" asked Roland curiously, looking over to Kan'U with an inquisitive glance.

"Li-Fan; he's one of the hunters. A bit of an oddball, but he's a good guy." explained Feng as he approached from the husk of a nearby house. His sudden appearance startled Kan'U, who jumped in surprise, her battle-hardened skills apparently failing her in the excitement she had felt moments earlier.

Disregarding his companion's reaction, the sentence caught Roland's attention. "What's so weird about him?" he asked, totally unfazed by the sudden presence of the taller male.

"He's a bit of a shut-in; spending most of his time in his tent set away from the village, rarely speaking to anyone, and sleeping most of the day." Feng explained. "He probably just had a hard time adjusting, since he only came into town a couple months ago."

He couldn't help the smile that crossed his face as he watched the shorter man train the other villagers. "Looks like he's been getting to know some of the others around town though." he commented "Not surprising since he was the one who organized the last hunt."

"He came here two months you say?" asked Kan'U curiously, glancing between the men, before looking over at the hunter as he once more demonstrated the proper handling of a bow.

"Yeah, about that." the tall man confirmed, scratching his cheek. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." said the woman. "He just seems rather comfortable here, given how short his stay here has been."

Roland shrugged casually. "We've been pretty comfortable here, and it hasn't even been that long." he rebuffed simply, walking over to the group of archers in training.

"Milord?" questioned Kan'U.

Feng shared her sentiment "Where are you headed?"

"If I'm gonna be the figurehead for these people, then I might as well ingratiate myself with them." the cowboy said, though there was a clear tone of mild exasperation to his voice as he spoke.

The guard captain looked surprised. "Wait, figurehead?" asked the man.

Kan'U turned towards the guardsman, explaining the situation to him as Roland made his way over to the hunter. Said man appeared almost featureless beneath his hood, and seemed to be perpetuating the image, as indicated by a big black scarf over his mouth, and the shadows of his headgear that seemed to grow darker in the area around his eyes. The result was someone who resembled a green-cloaked wraith, his quiet voice resonating out from the veil of shadows like the wind blowing through leaves.

"Can I help you?" asked the hooded male as the cowboy-turned-leader made his way over to the group.

Roland took a moment to compose himself. "I am…" he paused, a small frown crossing his features. "I'm the magistrate of the… local area." he said unsurely, looking about at the gutted buildings. "I just came over to see what you were doing with these here villagers."

Kan'U was stood off to the side, giving an awkward laugh. _'He… doesn't realize how much land he owns now. Does he?'_ she thought, before returning to her conversation with a confused-looking Feng.

The hooded man nodded as he addressed Roland. "Well then, it's good to meet you." he said courteously.

"As for what I was doing…" the man paused, leaning on a wall. "Well, the Turban attack made me realize that our defences were lacking; we need extra protection here, especially with most of our guards dead." He then turned and gestured to his firing line, who were still practicing their skills with the bow. "So I decided we should have the villagers learn to defend themselves. Not like we can depend on the emperor to help us in a time of need."

Roland looked over the line of bowmen, watching them each nock another arrow and let loose, the action being followed by a series of sharp thuds that told of the power they each hit their mark; perhaps not in the center of the targets, but it was impressive for a bunch of farmers and merchants. The man's approval was written clearly on his face as he addressed the hunter. "Lookin' good." he complimented "They've gotten a lot better than they were back in the fight with the Turbans."

Li nodded, indicating his apparent pride in his work. "I've been shooting a bow for years; that's a lot of time to practice and pick up tricks."

"They seem to be serving well. Most common folk take roughly a month of practice to shoot that well under typical instruction, yet you seem to have only taken a week. Assuming you've been training since the Turban attack." said Kan'U as she and Feng approached the group.

Li gave a shrug. "It must have something to do with the big fight. Practical experience tends to breed better warriors than even the most skilled trainers can."

Feng gestured over at the straw dummies. "You can shoot at static targets all day, but nothing teaches like an actual fight, where they run around and shoot back."

The guardsman then turned back to Roland. "By the way; congratulations on the promotion."

"It's only temporarily, until we find someone better for the job." explained the cowboy with a sigh, his shoulders slumped in exasperation.

Li turned over to the courier. "That may be, but we don't know how long that'll take. So congratulations." he said, before turning back to the group of archers. "Keep those backs straight."

Kan'U was quick to speak up on the subject. "On that note; what are our future plans, milord?" she asked.

That one stumped Roland for a moment. "Honestly, I can't tell you." he explained. "I wasn't planning on staying long after fixing up the village, so I didn't really put any thought into the subject."

"We can discuss it later. We'll have enough trouble rebuilding the village and building up our defences." suggested Feng, watching the villagers go about their business. "Though… I might have a few ideas on that front…"

As the tall man pondered whatever idea he had forming, Roland smirked. "So do I, actually; first order of business being a thicker wall."

Li gave a laugh. "Well, I have no doubt _that_ will come in handy…" he said, before turning back to training his archers.

"Perhaps, even sometime soon…"

 **Xxxxxx Meanwhile; Elsewhere in the country xxxxxx**

The man fled through the burning streets, a young lady pulled behind him by her hand and a little girl clutched to his chest, sobbing into his shoulder. Chanting and the sadistic laughter of several people followed after him.

' _Those eyes'_ he thought to himself _'That… man wasn't even a person anymore!'_

Staring back at the panicked expression of the woman he was pulling along. _'I… I have to stay strong. For them!'_ he thought to himself as he rushed through a cloud of acrid smoke.

He was so caught up in his contemplations, however, that he wasn't paying attention to what was right in front of him.

*Wham!*

His ears rung as his head rebounded off the metal surface, causing his vision to blur temporarily and the woman he was leading to fall over behind him.

He heard a faint shout of surprise and fear through the head injury, and immediately recognized it as the voice of the young woman he was with previously. "L-Love! What is-" his voice died in his throat as his eyes cleared and he beheld what stood in front of them. Though, the word "stood" was an incorrect term, as the entity was floating far above the ground.

What he witnessed was some sort of… monster.

Its body was round and covered in some chitinous shell, with several twitching tentacles flowing behind it from all sides of its body, save the front end, which was dominated primarily by at least a dozen small, black, soulless eyes, all of which seemed to focus on him and his family. The fires of hell itself seemed to glow around them, reflecting off the body of this beast, and giving it a red hue that danced in the reflective surface of the demon's skin. **(2)**

Tears welled in the eyes of the man, his lover wrapped her arms around him, and the young girl clung to him, paralyzed in fear of the hellscape their lives seemed to have become.

 **Xxx ED-E's Perspective xxx**

ED-E hovered about the village, watching as it burned around him.

He had no idea what was going on, and it made his mechanical form shudder in anticipation and fear, his processor somehow able to simulate the emotion. The dancing light of the blaze reflected in the grille that served as his eye and the smoke obstructed his vision, both of which making it almost impossible for him to see anything more than a few meters in front of him.

Because of this, it was no surprise that he bumped into something, which caused him to reel back in surprise, though this was soon replaced by a sudden fear as he beheld several living creatures before him, momentarily obscured by the smoke billowing about them. He would have fled the potential threat the moment it appeared, not wanting to take any chance that could lead to him being dismantled, but he stopped before he could even turn to flee as his sensory equipment locked onto the trio.

The robot's systems identified them as an apparent family of humans comprised of two adults and a child, all of whom were laying on their backs in front of him. Seeing their state of shock and terror, he assumed it was due to the event that had started the blaze that flickered about them, so he decided to put aside his fear, given the lack of immediate threat, and instead went to offer some comfort to the group.

*Bleep, beep*

This sound caused the group to flinch backwards and the father to pull his daughter to his chest protectively, the lot of them confused and scared by the whole event.

This perplexed ED-E; typically people reacted positively to him once he made his lack of hostility known, but these people seemed to be even more put off than before. It was at this point that he wished he could speak in the language of humans and allay their fear with words rather than simple noises…

Wait! He had those audio playbacks, didn't he?

Before he could play anything, however, a new set of figures rounded a corner further up the street, though they were mostly obscured by smoke. They were chanting something in an odd, foreign language as they rushed through the streets in a disorganized rabble, and only grew even more frenzied upon setting their sites on the people laying before ED-E, the robot himself likely being obscured by the smoke.

The father of the group stood up and dragged his wife to her feet with him, both of them turning to face the rabble in surprise.

 **Xxx**

The woman clung to her husband as they witnessed the apparent bandits step forward, their voices meshing together in an unintelligible racket filled with various threats, insults, and horrifying insinuations about what they might do to her and her family if they were caught. If she were honest with herself, she would be debating which death would leave them worse off; the demon at their backs or the turban-clad maniacs in front of them.

As the group closed in, the apparent head of their little warband stepped forward and offered them his hand, though the sadistic grin told that it wasn't out of kindness. "Come on quietly and we won't hurt you… too bad." he said jokingly; it was clear that he wasn't expecting them to accept the offer, nor did it seem he wanted them too.

 **Xxx**

ED-E watched the exchange, totally uncomprehending of what they were saying, but he understood the situation perfectly. He and Roland had witnessed many similar encounters in the past, and this was no different.

Still, there were a lot of these guys, perhaps seven in all, and the little eyebot was alone now, no backup to keep him from being torn apart by gunfire. Besides, his duty is to Roland and nothing else, so he should just leave before-

' _ **Accessing memory file'**_

" _Now ain't this a surprise?" said Roland as he held his gun to the side of the raider's head. He was a big brute of a man covered in armor made primarily of bones and leather. Despite his apparent might, though, he was bloodied and broken, kneeling amidst a burning circle of tents._

 _Said raider held his hands up in the air. "Wh-What the hell are you?" he asked, his body shaking as he stood up, the corpses of his fellows laying around him in piles. "Wait… I know you."_

" _I'd be surprised if you didn't." said the courier sarcastically. "I've been burning your camps for about a month now."_

 _The raider didn't do as expected and try to attack the man, but instead tried to talk his way out of the situation. "Now hold on, maybe we can talk about this." he reasoned. "I mean, you're the infamous courier six, right? So why don't you join up with my band?"_

" _Band?" mimicked Roland with a brow quirked beneath his hat._

" _Yeah. I'm with a band of raiders around the area. You know that much." the established raider replied. "You like caps, right? Well, think about it; with your skills, we can get rich. Like,_ _really_ _rich."_

" _Y'know, we could buy New Vegas from House with the sort of money you could make." he continued to prattle on, growing more and more excited. "We could enlist the Khans to get us an infinite supply of chems. The Fiends could be our security force. Hell; we could get the Brotherhood of Steel to make weapons for us if we could track them down! We could take over the NCR, the Legion! Think about it!"_

 _Taking the man's advice, Roland gave it a thought. "I never really considered it that way…" he thought aloud. "Where d'you guys hang out?"_

" _We run an operation outta Redrock canyon to the north of here." replied the man quickly, thinking he'd made a new ally._

" _Good." said the cowboy with a grin that could be perceived as downright sadistic. "Now I know where you assholes are coming from. Don't worry, I'll leave a nice big cross on the pile of ashes."_

" _W-Wait! What!?" shouted the raider. "What about the caps!?"_

 _Roland shrugged. "Don't need caps that bad. At least not bad enough to beat the shit outta an old man and take 'em…"_

" _Not afraid to take a bounty from him though…" he muttered cheekily_

" _Why do you waste your talent on these people? They're weak… Pathetic." said the raider. "Come on, man… in this world, it's survival of the fittest. Plus, if I don't shoot the old farmer, then something else will come along and eat him alive. You can't save the world, so why not help yourself?"_

" _Well, you're right there. I'm not able to save the world. It was fucked to begin with anyways…" admitted Roland stoically. "But if I can help even one other person in my life… well, I'll give it my damndest." he smirked at that statement._

 _The bandit paused for a moment, thinking on the words he'd just heard. "…How the hell does someone as naïve as you get so far in life?"_

 _Roland shrugged. "Like you said; survival of the fittest. Ain't my ideals that give me an edge, it's what I'm willin' to do to get 'em done."_

" _You know, you could be so great." said the bandit leader with a small scoff._

" _Maybe I could, maybe not. Thing is; I don't wanna find out." replied the courier._

" _Wha-"_

" _Being a leader's way too much work for me. I wouldn't be any good at it." Roland cut the raider off, before putting a bullet in his head._

 _*Bang!*_

 _He then turned to face ED-E with a smirk. "Besides, he was exaggerating. A lot."_

' _ **Ending playback'**_

It only took a millisecond for the memory to flash through ED-E's artificial mind, and by the time he snapped back to reality, the raider wearing that yellow cloth had only taken a single step towards the family.

Seeing this, ED-E was overcome with an odd feeling of familiarity, and knew almost reflexively what he should do.

"I'm not able to save the world, but if I can help even one other person…" came the voice of Roland again, though this time it was through an external speaker, which caught the attention of everyone present.

"Hmm?" *Crack!*

The raider found himself floored as the floating metal sphere burst through the smoke and slammed into him at a surprising speed, using his steely body to knock him flat on his ass. This caught the attention of the other raiders, who stumbled back in shock at the sudden appearance of the small robot, but that wasn't what caught his attention.

Instead, he was more focused on scanning the threats around him, analysing their weapons and protection over the course of only a moment, and he found himself elated to discover they were wearing the most ineffective-looking leather padding and holding rusted, chipped swords. These people couldn't hit him, and even if they did it would be useless against his armored plating.

Confidence renewed, he spun around with a bubble of ruby-colored energy building up in the weapon hanging under his chassis. Needless to say, this seemingly intimidated the foes before him, who began to shout and babble in that strange language of theirs as some of them stumbled back to try and avoid his gaze. This proved ineffective, as the built up energy then lanced out towards one of the men, and he just evaporated.

His leather tunic did precious little against ED-E's laser weapon, which singed a hole in the back where he'd shot it. The result was a stream of raw energy piercing deep into his body and scattering through him in a cascade of raw heat that literally burned each individual cell in his body and flash-boiled every ounce of fluid within him. There was a *pop!* as steam burst forth and immediately dissipated, while his body fell over, only to be reduced to ash as the energy burned him away.

This only served to terrify the raiders, who all turned tail and fled the scene, with ED-E firing at them as they ran, crippling the leg of one woman, who toppled over into a burning building and began screaming as her clothing caught fire.

The bandit leader, however, was left on his ass, shuddering and panicking as he watched his allies flee from the monster that downed two of their kind with only a single shot each. His panic only increased tenfold when the sphere turned slowly to face him, scaring him to the point where tears actually began to well up in his eyes and his jaw shuddered. He began babbling once more in a stuttering voice, and while ED-E couldn't understand the man, he knew grovelling when he saw it.

Roland had emasculated enough raiders to make this a very familiar action to the eyebot.

The small robot hovered there for a moment, before replying to the nonsensical stuttering with another recorded voice clip. "I am the law!"

With that, he then shot the bandit's hand with his ruby light, blasting off the last two fingers on his hand and singing the flesh of the appendage, causing him to writhe on the ground in pain, shouting and cursing. It seemed that was the extent of the machine's wrath, however, as he turned to look at the family, who had been standing there in stunned silence for a while. He didn't even show the bandit any regard as he stood up and sprinted away, deeper into the burning village.

The family shuddered and the man passed his daughter off to his wife, pushing them behind him as he backed up, protecting them with his body, despite the sweat pouring down his face.

Noting their apparent stress, ED-E tried to placate them by playing a song. "I'm so excited! I just can't hide it~!"

It would appear that the energetic approach was not the way to go. This was made readily apparent when the little girl in the woman's arms screamed in surprise. "Kya!"

The robot was honestly perplexed by their reaction to his presence. Didn't they see he meant no harm? Sure they spoke different languages, but if he wanted to hurt them, he would have already.

He had no more time to contemplate the issue, as his attention was grabbed by a shout of "Hey!" **(3)**

Turning to face the supposed source of the noise, he was greeted only by the image of a large shadow falling over him, followed by blackness…

 **Xxxxxx Meanwhile; Zhuo District xxxxxx**

The man leaned against a wooden rail atop a tall, newly-constructed guard tower and watched a contingent of militia soldiers patrolling around the broken gate into the village, making sure no assailants were on their way.

"Milord." said Aisha's voice from behind him. "If I may be so bold; thou hast been staring out into the mountain range for a good few hours. Perhaps 'twould be best to take a short break?" she suggested.

The man sighed. "Yeah… maybe I should." he agreed, standing straight up and turning to join the warrior woman as she retreated down the ladder.

It wasn't long before the pair reached the ground and began making their way to the largest building at the center of the village, which seemed to be in the best state among the other, smaller structures, clearly having been a priority when they began rebuilding.

As they walked, Kan'U was the first to speak up. "With all respect, you seem rather perturbed as of late. And while I hesitate to pry…" she trailed off

Understanding what she was implying, Roland replied with a hint of tension in his voice. "It might seem a bit stupid, but I…" he paused trying to figure out how he was going to express his troubles with words. "Well, I feel like I'm sorta responsible for these people now. I mean, before I was just helping them 'cause it was the right thing to do… but now that they made me their leader, it's a whole different level of responsibility to protect them."

"So it has you on edge, then." Aisha summed up simply.

The man nodded. "You could say that. Just looking at those mountains and knowing that there's other Turbans out there attacking the rest of the countryside makes me want to put up some sort of… I dunno… big wall around us to keep out invaders."

"Not a wholly bad concept, milord." the woman said thoughtfully "Perhaps we might erect such a great wall around China itself upon our final victory."

Roland's brow quirked _'China, eh? Is that what they call this place?'_ **(4)**

He paused, however, as the rest of what she said caught up with him. "Okay, first off; I doubt we have the kind of resources to do that in your lifetime." he said.

The woman shrugged. "'twas merely a thought."

"And secondly;" the courier continued regardless "Since when did I agree to take over the whole damn place? One village is hard enough to manage, I've had plenty of practice with New Vegas, but an entire goddamn civilisation? I couldn't handle _that_ to save my life."

This time, it was Kan'U that took pause. "Village?" she asked "Milord… dost thou truly not understand what a Commandery is?"

The man would have responded, if it wasn't for Feng approaching them from off to the side, now clad in his shiny new guard captain outfit. "Hey kids, we have a problem."

Roland looked over with an annoyed scowl. "How many times have I told you not to call us- wait, what sort of problem?"

"A messenger from Sousou's territory." the older man replied.

"Who?" asked Roland.

It was Kan'U who took charge this one time. "Bring us to them." she said, a stern determination in her eyes.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **And that's a wrap!**

 **(1) When I say he's "tanned" I mean for a white guy. Compared to the rest of the people around him, the guy has a pretty pale complexion. When he's cleaned up, that is.**

 **(2** **) All this keeping in mind that it's from the perspective of a terrified, superstitious villager.**

 **(3) I actually looked this up. The exclamation is the same in Chinese as it is in English, just spelled differently.**

 **(4) Notice he doesn't use the word "country"**

 **Here, not only did you get to see a bit into Roland's personality, of which you can make what you will, but we also saw a good glimpse of how he ran New Vegas after the game ended and he finished all the dlc. Of course, that's not counting all the potential mods out there for him to have done.**

 **Also, we managed to get a look at the village as it rebuilt itself; and before you say anything, yes I know a two month timeskip is a little mad, but I feel like nothing really big would have happened in that time. I made it so the village has had plenty of time to rebuild and is now getting back on its feet, and seeing as there's no direct reference to what's happened between the major events, i.e. the Turban battle and the next chapter, I decided to just make it up.**

 **I'll be doing that a lot.**

 **Speaking of making shit up, we also get introduced to yet another oc in Li-Fan, but don't worry, he's not going to be too prominent. There'll be enough characters with the vanilla games.**

 **Either way, I'm just glad that it's over and I got my proverbial groove back. That chapter was one hell of a process to make.**

 **It's been how long now? Three months? Four?**

 **Bloody hell. That's bad considering how little I've been updating my other stories.**

 **I've been really distracted as of late, what with my job situation, perpetual sickness, and general lack of motivation to write, among many other factors that just keep getting in my way. But now I'm just making excuses for my laziness.**

 **I mean, there's really no adequate excuse I could offer for the lack of updates, but please try to keep in mind this is a hobby of mine, and not something I do on any sort of schedule.**

 **I just hope this chapter was worth the wait for the update, and if not… err, sorry again?**

 **Anyways, now I'll get on with replying to some of your comments!**

 **Thaqif:** Once more, you have a knack for posting a lot of comments, but I appreciate it, so I'll answer what I can, all in order of comment appearance since the last chapter. Please keep in mind that I can't answer them all because it will be going into spoiler territory.

 **1:** This should be answered soon, but I won't tell you anything about Roland's Pipboy or anything related to ED-E until his next appearance.

 **2:** I'm glad you brought this up! I didn't bring some of Roland's better gear, such as his desert ranger armour or an anti-material rifle, because this would make him understandably over powered. Keep in mind this is a world where the best weapons they get are some really nice swords and leather armor, which would make Roland something of a demigod amongst the common people… or rather moreso than he currently is.

If I gave him those top-tier, endgame items, then there would be no reason for him to ever use his head or devise tactics; he could just snipe the enemy commanders from across the battlefield, or wade into the enemy ranks totally unharmed in a full suit of power armour. Hell; the laser pistol is likely never even going to get repaired just because it seems overpowered. You saw what it did to those Turbans!

 **3:** You make a good point with the whole idea of Aisha holding a gun, but she doesn't seem like the sort who would take too well to using the weapons. She might receive training in the use of firearms, but I doubt she would want to use them, and given that Roland only has a few useable weapons at the moment, he probably won't be doling out his main offensive weapons.

This is especially given his lack of interest in melee combat. Think of it in terms of an MMO; Roland is support/ranged and Kan'U is the tank.

 **4/5:** I put these two together because, put simply, they both run the risk of exposing spoilers, so I'll keep these bits to myself and just say "maybe" in both cases.

 **6:** I'm replying directly to this comment because I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate and value the opinions of my readers, and while I may not always push the story in a way you like, I still like the fact that you take the time to comment.

 **7:** I can't tell you exactly what will happen, but you can guess from Roland's personality and the land he comes from that he's not going to take kindly to any sort of red tape.

 **8:** Again, these are spoilers.

 **Whew, well that was all of them for Thaqif. Before I get onto the rest of the comments, I just wanted to clarify that I won't answer questions that would result in spoilers for the fic; basically, if you ask "Will** _ **someone**_ **do** _ **something**_ **" (filling in the italics with names and events respectively), then you will only get one reply from me. "Spoilers"**

 **Now, let's continue.**

 **Drake202:** I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter there. Also, thanks for keeping up the occasional pressure; I might have put this off for a lot longer if you weren't reminding me I still had people reading this.

 **Vindicem:** Thanks for bringing this up, I actually didn't notice I made Roland a bit if a bitch in that encounter.

To be honest, that entire scene was just an excuse to have Aisha intervene without Roland taking all the spotlight. Y'know, I wanted to prove he was fallible early on and not a total badass. But if you want to make up a cannon reason, we can.

I mean, how many of you have ever played late-game Bethesda products, i.e. Fallout New Vegas, and decided "I could sit on this ridge and snipe those legion scouts from afar… but that's not fun, so I'll just run in there with a power fist instead."

Well, I imagine Roland would get bored, and a little cocky, so he'd probably let his guard down in front of these guys who, in all honesty, are pretty unintimidating compared to even the legion themselves. Not to mention in this "survival of the fittest" world he came from, he is the "fittest" out there, so after putting his boot up a deathclaw's ass, these Turban thugs were a simple foe to face. You can make up your own headcannon here, but the convenient answer is that he got cocky.

Either way, that one mistake was made and the situation ended up just gaining momentum until he was left rather more vulnerable than he usually is, especially when his Pipboy broke, leaving him unarmed except that slingshot of his. He probably could have handled it himself, though, after he got back on his feet and began to finally take the turbans somewhat seriously. I doubt he could have seriously died, even if Kan'U hadn't been there.

A bloodied lip is nothing to the infamous Courier Six.

I could probably have made a better excuse, but it's been a while since I read that chapter.

That fumble aside, I'm glad you're enjoying the fiction so far and I hope to keep it as enjoyable into the foreseeable future. I'll try to write him as more of a badass in the future and prevent from putting him in such a seemingly vulnerable position again…

Unless the plot calls for it, then I'll give him a damn good reason for it.

 **Jumping Toaster:** I haven't gotten to that part in the VN yet, but from what I've seen on the wiki, this cult seems to be pretty prominent to the plot.

Don't fret, however, because I've heard from numerous sources that this so-called cult is a pretty stupid plot point, so I'll probably have them replaced with another organization with significantly more chaotic intentions. It will still play into the idea of sorcery, mind you, but it's not with the purpose of destroying an entire plane of reality, but rather something significantly more mundane, whatever that means.

 **Helios-Rufus:** Think of Fallout as a typical post-apocalyptic world where people are beginning to rebuild after a couple hundred years. The twist to the theme is that the civilisation before the world ended was based on what the 80's thought the future would be like… Only with less racism and more government corruption. It's got all sorts of references to pop culture and easter eggs that will at least give you a good chuckle.

As for Koihime Musou; I'm as blind as you are, depending on a youtube playlist to get me through this. That said; I'm always supportive of hot lesbians in all forms of media, so I'll probably have no issues getting into the story.

Check out goJokergo for the playlist.

 **Well then, those are all the comments for this one.**

 **Before I go, however, I want to bring your attention to three things. See, one reason I've been slacking on updates for this fic is because I have a couple other projects**

 **The first is a Skyrim/To Love-Ru crossover (Potentially more crossovers to come). Basically, I took crossed fates and gutted it, taking what I liked and tossing it into an entirely new fiction that hopefully doesn't have the same major flaws as CF had. I've called it "Crossing worlds" and already have a chapter out, with another one on the way soon.**

 **The second project I have in the woodwork is a crossover between Starcraft and Black Lagoon. I won't give too much away aside from the fact that this is totally new and carries a theme much to the vein of Tokyo Ghoul, Hellsing, High School of the Dead, and other supernatural thrillers set in modern era, just with more Revy.**

 **Before you ask, yes this is an oc-centric fic, but I figure you all liked Roland so much, I'd try my hand at going totally original. Release date pending.**

 **The third project I'm working on is a rewrite of From Ashes. I left a more indepth explanation on the hiatus note that I'll be putting up roughly at the same time as this chapter, but I figured I'd bring it to your attention. The reason for this is because this is your chance to make your voices heard and potentially alter the course of the story. Make your voices heard!**

 **I feel I should also mention I have a contest in which readers can actually create your own OC's and potentially have them put into the story at a later date. So those of you with a bunch of ideas but no way of implementing them, check out the hiatus note on the latest "chapter" of From Ashes.**

 **Alright, well that's the last of the proverbial housekeeping, so I'll leave you lot to get on with your days. Thanks for reading**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter… Buh-bye!**


	7. Marching Order

Divinity and the Devil's Luck

Chapter 5: Marching Order.

 **Well, here we are again; the world of Divinity.**

 **I'm glad to admit it hasn't been an entire year between updates, so you have to at least be thankful that I'm not quite that bad yet… but I get that it's been a while, so I can only be grateful that you haven't gone ahead and started spamming the comments with "When's the next chapter?" "Hurry up and update you fag!" "First comment!" etc… etc…**

 **But, I know you all are decent people anyways, so there was never any real worry about that.**

 **Anyways, I'd just like to say that I'm sorry for the wait as usual, and I'm glad I got a patient lot here reading this. Not that many of you would stick around otherwise.**

"Speech"

' _Thought'_

" **Deep/Foreboding"**

 **(Author's note)**

 **Xxxxxx** Scene break

 **Xxxxxx Scene change xxxxxx**

 **I don't own Koihime Musou, Fallout, or any related properties thereof. Otherwise I would never stop pumping out DLC's for both games just because more content is always awesome!**

 **Now without further ado; on with the show!**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

Roland, his eyes now covered by a set of dark, aviator sunglasses, marched forward through the grasslands of the Yozhou prefecture, his face set in an annoyed frown as he approached a large hill, upon which stood his retainer, her green battle dress blowing in the breeze.

"Milord?" she asked, turning to partly face him. "What news?"

"Turns out the bandits didn't know shit." he said with a snort. "They were driven out here by the Turban attacks and decided this'd be a fun place ta' set up, thinkin' we weren't ready for another fight." he explained.

Kan'U gave a short laugh. "Well, I don't suppose they were ready for an entire army."

Roland's annoyance turned to amusement as he gave a chuckle of his own. "I guess not." he grunted, cresting the hill. "But they sure as all hell were surprised when that's what they got."

Looking over the hill, the pair could see a small military encampment sprawled out before them, at least a thousand people strong, if not more. Within said camp, various soldiers/militia were bustling away, packing up tents, loading covered wagons, and hitching up beasts of burden.

The appearance of the army had changed since its conception as well; they now had a more uniform look to them, with the makeshift armours and weapons being swapped out for more refined and professionally-built variants, all with a predominantly green and brown colour scheme.

"Hard to believe it's only been a month, eh?" Roland chuckled.

"That it is…" the lady retainer replied with a soft smile. "The progress under your rule has been astounding." she muttered under her breath.

The pair stood and watched for a moment, before the spearmaiden turned again to face her lord. "Thou hast given your word, milord… yet I cannot help but feel uneasy." she said quietly. "Art thou sure thou dost wish to leave the district in the care of the common folk?"

This brought a sigh from the man. "It's like I keep tellin' ya; I'd be no better at the job than they are, remember?" he asked.

"I just needed to set 'em up to govern themselves so they could do it without me. Especially if I'm gonna be out fightin' the good fight." he explained, removing his hat and running his fingers through his auburn hair. "I'm a figurehead, don't forget. I gotta lead by example and get stuck in with the troops, otherwise I'm no better than the goddamn government that put 'em in this state to begin with."

"Yes, you say this every time. Yet the changes thou hast put in place have revolutionized the government." Kan'U reasoned to him. "Clearly you must have some talent for politics."

"None of those ideas were mine to start with. It's all just information taken from old books and borrowed from other cultures." Roland countered, much to Aisha's chagrin. Seeing this, the courier sighed. "Look, it's not like I'm tossin' myself into the thick of it, but it's like I said, I have to fight otherwise people lose faith in me and start to question me."

"Either way, I'm more a fighter than a politician; Ivory towers are too shiny for my taste." He joked, glancing at his retainer over his glasses with a smirk in place. "Plus, the Turbans are starting to get afraid o' me now." he then added with a smirk. "Gotta build up a reputation ya' know, and I can't do it behind a desk."

Kan'U nodded at the comment, not able to really disagree on that front. "Thou art correct on that front, lord… though I must truly question exactly how much fear you have instilled." she said with a frown. "The group has been growing far bolder and more powerful by the day in other districts outside our own. The reports of them attacking border outposts indicate as much."

"Which is why we're here." replied the male.

Shaking her head, Kan'U frowned. "That is… questionable." she muttered.

Quirking a brow in her direction, Roland looked curiously at her, pushing up his glasses. "Whaddya mean by that?" he asked.

The woman started at his voice. "N-Nothing milord!" she cried, waving her hands before her.

"It's a free country. Go ahead and speak yer mind." the man said, waving off her worries.

Taking his advice, Kan'U rubbed her neck uncomfortably. "'Tis not as though I am criticizing your work, milord. Thou hast been very successful, despite thy protests." she prefaced. "It is merely that we'd assumed these attacks were a small issue until just recently, so I doubt we would have caught on to it until the threat had become too great for us to handle." the woman explained.

"…" Roland was quiet for a minute. "I'll… admit, you got a point there." he said, finally. "We'd thought it was just a few little raids out o' spite fer smashing their operation; figured that a few counter-attacks on their border camps could handle it. At least, before that messenger came a-knockin'."

He couldn't help but think back to the event in question.

 **Xxxxxx Flashback xxxxxx**

 _Feng lead the pair out to one of the city gates, where they were met with a small contingent of city guards, all of whom were standing around the open gateway, ready for whatever might come their way._

 _Staring out into the plains beyond, the group could see a cloud of dust just coming over the horizon, and at the head of it was a man on a horse, flying a flag with some sort of colors that Roland had never seen before; apparently belonging to this "Sousou" guy he'd heard about, if the mutterings of his men were to be believed._

 _The horseman drew closer and closer at a speed that clearly told he was in a rush, the beast beneath him exerting a great effort in order to keep up with its rider's demands, only slowing down once they approached the gate, allowing them to finally come into focus._

 _The village guard braced their spears in the event of hostilities, but when no signal was given, they eased up a little, still keeping the weapons ready. The horse was allowed in without conflict, both it and the rider panting heavily, looking exhausted and dishevelled; clearly the road hadn't been kind to either._

 _The messenger himself managed to dismount without simply falling off and withdrew a scroll from his hip. "T-The… commander, Kousonsan… requests aid…" he panted out, before promptly pitching forward and falling on his face in the street, dropping the scroll which then rolled to Aisha's feet._

 _The woman bent down and retrieved the scroll, before turning to her lord with a frown. "What dost thou make of this?"_

 _Roland, on the other hand, was looking up at the horse with a confounded stare, as though just discovering some strange, alien creature for the first time. Really, there was only one thing he could say at the time…_

" _That's one fucked-up lookin' brahman…"_

 **Xxxxxx End Flashback xxxxxx**

The man cleared his throat, pushing up the aviators further into his face to hide his embarrassed look. "B-Back on the original topic…" he said, steering the conversation away from his momentary lapse.

"I'm not all that worried about how things are back there. The district is in good shape, and there ain't many people dumb enough to attack any of the villages after we fortified the place to hell and got that militia up and running." he explained to her. "Besides, this is a good chance to see how well the council is at governing itself, without one guy callin' all the shots like they're used to."

"While I don't totally get your reasoning, I have to agree with your conclusion. The council has been depending too heavily on your judgement, and there's no reason to be concerned with the state of the housewives' association when we have an army on our borders." said another male voice as Li approached the scene, clad in light leather armor, a long green cloak, and with a reinforced bow slung over his shoulder, his beard and hair trimmed shorter and cropped neatly. "Feng's a good man; he's respected and knows the people well. Leaving him to maintain peace back home was a good choice."

Roland turned to Kan'U with a smirk. "See?" he said "He agrees with me."

The woman sighed in exasperation. "I suppose you've a point. Though I would have at least preferred to leave the village in a more stable state. I feel that our departure was too abrupt."

"You say that, but what choice do we have?" asked the cloaked archer. "We've got the Turbans knocking on our door, and one of Sousou's commanders is asking for help. Staying back and securing our walls would only make us two more enemies and weaken our borders on that front."

"He's got a point." Roland agreed. "Plus, I ain't one for sitting back and taking the 'cautious' rout."

Kan'U grabbed her upper arm in one hand, looking melancholic. "Well, thou dost have a point. Though it still feels… wrong."

Suddenly, and without any warning, Roland strode forward and put a hand on his retainer's shoulder, surprising her. "Gwah!" she squeaked as she whipped around, spooking some of the nearby horses. "M-Milord?"

"Aisha." he said seriously, his face set in the faintest of smiles in an attempt to comfort her… though the genuineness almost seemed out of place on his usually gruff visage. "I know you feel like you're… abandoning the people. It feels like you're leaving 'em to the wolves, right after helpin' 'em back to their feet."

"H-How do you-" the woman asked, but was cut off.

"It's the kinda person you are." he assured her. "Trust me, I know your sort; an' I know ya feel like leavin' them behind to take care o' themselves is the same as opening the gates and tellin' the Turbans to walk right in…"

The man's head then tilted off to the east, where he saw the sun as it began its slow climb into the sky. "But… ya' gotta trust the people to take care of 'emselves from time-to-time." he said, shrugging his shoulders. "We gave 'em a good start; told 'em how to look after their own without one guy tellin' them how to live their lives, and that's the best we could do for them." he explained. "We're here to help them rule themselves, not give them a new king to serve."

Li nodded from his place off to the side. "He speaks true." the man said. "We have a representative from every aspect of the community; the merchants, the hunters, the craftsmen… even if for purely selfish reasons, they should be able to work things out between themselves and figure out a solution that helps the majority of the populous."

"I… cannot help but agree." the woman nodded, turning to her lord. "Especially with such confidence on your part."

"'course I'm confident." he said surely with a smirk as he tilted his hat back. "Can't go wrong with the setup we have."

"Err… I'm not so sure I'd go _that_ far." Li said awkwardly behind them. "I mean, there's always a chance for failure."

"Well, it works well enough back home. Haven't had any problems with it so far, and it's been a few years since we started." Roland argued with a shrug. "Plus, we're starting off small here with just the one town. If things don't work out, then we just gotta look at the system and see where things went wrong."

"Well, that makes sense, I guess." the Asian man grunted in reply. "You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs."

Kan'U looks at him oddly. "I don't think I've ever heard that expression before." she said.

"It means ya' gotta make mistakes before somethin' good comes out of it. Trial and error 'n all." Roland explained, pulling the flask from his coat, only to pause and swish it back and forth. He scowled as he heard only a small volume of liquid sloshing around inside, and stowed it back in the duster with a grumble. "Need a refill…"

"Well, for as odd an expression as it is, there is still wisdom to be found in those words." Kan'U commented with a nod.

"True enough." Roland nodded, before turning his attention back to Li. "But now I gotta ask where you heard it from?" he asked, peering over his glasses at the other man.

He shrugged. "I've heard it up north, when I-"

*Mooo!* *Snort!*

The group was jolted from their conversation when the sounds of a panicked beast came from nearby, and they turned to see an ox shaking its head and stomping its hooves in displeasure, taking an aggressive posture as a group of young men tried to hitch it to a wagon.

"What are you- oh good grief!" grunted Li as he marched his way over to the group. "Back up! You've upset the damn thing!"

Roland and Kan'U watched their ally get back to packing up the camp, before continuing on their way to the center of the area.

"Y'know; I gotta admit that I feel a bit bad about sittin' about and camping while this 'commander' we heard about is out there fighting." said Roland with a frown. "We took long enough setting up the wagons for travel."

"'twas your idea to sleep for the night, milord." Kan'U pointed out. "And a good one it was; between the raiding we've been doing on the nearby Turban camps and the almost constant marching, our soldiers would be worn down by the time we got there." she explained, offering a quick wave as a small group of soldiers turned to salute them. "For as much as we wish to assist Kousonsan, it would do nobody any good if we arrive with a half-force of exhausted soldiers throwing themselves into the enemy lines and getting themselves killed."

"And by having our warriors take shifts sitting in the wagons, their bodies and minds will remain fresh for the battle. At least, moreso than footslogging the entire way." she added on, further reinforcing her point. **(1)**

The man sighed heavily. "I know; I don't want our people gettin' killed for no reason, but it won't stop me from feelin' bad if we get there too late."

"We've been sweeping the area for Turban activity; such an attack from behind is liable to take the pressure off the front line." Kan'U reassured her lord. "Not to mention the clear tactical advantage we gain from catching out the small pockets of Turban resistance while they're weak and outnumbered."

"There you go again; showin' off that tactical brain o' yours." the cowboy quipped with a dry laugh.

"Though… that will not ease your concerns, will it?" she asked as they approached the center, where there were several horses already saddled, armored, and ready for riding.

"No." Roland said bluntly, before turning to her out the corner of his eye with a smirk. "But you know what will?"

"I can only assume." the girl replied, a smile of her own forming on her face.

*Neeeeiiigghh!*

With a loud whinny, a large, chocolate-brown stallion with white markings on its forehead, muzzle, and chest galloped up, stopping right in front of Roland with a snort. A pair of young soldiers, a man and a woman, came running around the corner to try and catch the horse, panting heavily.

"Getting back on the road." Roland finished, leaping up and mounting the beast.

It reared up on its hind legs, giving another loud cry, as though happy to have the familiar weight of the cowboy once more mounted upon its saddle.

 **Xxxxxx Meanwhile xxxxxx**

A small squad of seven Yellow Turbans were crouched behind a rock by a road running through the prairies, the raiders scouring for people to rob or caravans to… well, raid.

At the head of the group was a familiar trio; the leader of the three who originally tried to rob Roland, flanked by his subordinate, the fat giant and the yappy midget. The two others were new, however; a set of young men.

One of them was looking perpetually nervous, his wiry frame hunched in on itself and shifty eyes looking around, head constantly on a swivel like a skittish deer or a small bird.

In sharp contrast, the other man appeared bold and prideful, and his face was much more fine and handsome, with smooth features and a small, confident smirk ever-present. If not for the fact he was running with a group of feral barbarians, he would likely be considered quite the lady killer.

Both of these new men shared many likenesses, such as their brown hair, black eyes, and several discerning facial features. Clearly they were closely related; probably brothers.

"Hey Fatso, you see anything out there?" asked the goblin-like midget, picking his teeth with an old knife.

"Nope." The dopey man said simply.

"I don't see why we're even out here." commented the handsome young man, playing a card game with his apparent brother. "Most farmers are either sticking to the bigger towns, or they've already left the province."

"The higher-ups caught wind of a big migration heading to a nearby settlement." the leader explained with a shrug. "I wasn't told much, but they're probably trying to get away from some big conflict or another, and we're scouting out to see if they have anything worth taking from them."

The younger man sighed. "So we're stuck out here waiting for them to haul all their asses down this road, just on the off-chance they might have something worth snatching." he griped with a sigh.

"C-Come on, bro." said the soft-spoken voice of the scrawnier male. "It's not like we have anything better to do, and we need the supplies."

"Yeah; we have so many people running with us that we could pretty much take on the whole empire." the leader said proudly. "That kind of army needs a lot of supplies."

He then tilted his head up to the big man. "See anything yet?"

"Uhhh…" the large man put his hands up to his eyes as though they were binoculars. "Nope. Still nothi- Wait!" he cried.

This got the attention of the other Turbans around them, all of whom looked in his direction to see him pointing out towards the road. Following his finger, they saw him gesturing towards a figure slowly wandering in their direction, clad in a long, tattered cloak of dull green and a large rice hat, looking like something out of an old Kung-fu movie.

Not that the Turbans had any idea what a "movie" even was. If they did, then maybe they would have hung back and not antagonized the person in question.

As it stood though, they weren't that well-informed- or intelligent for that matter- so the leader smirked and gestured to his men, who all then proceeded to step out of their cover, intercepting the cloaked person.

"Heh. Looks like you get to see some action after all." said the Turban leader to the good-looking one as they approached the covered form of the wanderer.

Said individual looked up as the lot appeared, their face obscured beneath the shadow of their hat, but clearly they seemed unfazed by the approach of the raiders.

As they approached, they could clearly see a large green pack on the person's back, slung over one shoulder, and this caused the group to increase their pace until they reached their quarry, encircling the person so they had nowhere to run.

The stranger simply held their ground, watching impassively as the Turbans surrounded them. "Alright buddy, you know what this is. Give us your shit." shouted the midget, his sword held up towards the person.

The boss simply sighed at his underling's crassness. "For as… upfront as he is; my friend here speaks the truth. Just hand us your valuables and we'll leave you to be on your way." he said in an attempt to play it suave.

To his credit, the man was actually quite charming, if barbaric and greedy. Unfortunately, the stranger didn't seem all-that affected by his brand of "diplomacy," if it could be so-called.

A feminine voice let out a growl from beneath the hat. "Look, I'm in a bad mood." she ground out simply, her voice carrying significantly more weight than someone of her height should. "Just back off."

The Turban leader blinked in confusion. "Wasn't expecting that reply…" he grumbled under his breath, before sighing. "Looks like we're doing this the hard way."

He held his sword up to the woman, held only slightly away from her hat to leave her room to move, but not enough to let her run from him. "Look, I'm trying to make this easier for us all. Just take off that cloak and hand over your valuables."

"Heh, and maybe take off more than just the cloak." the short Turban said, getting a few laughs from the rest of his crew.

"Annoying little man." the woman grunted out. If one were to look, they might have seen her twitching a little beneath her cape.

"Sorry, what?" asked the leader.

"You're all annoying." the woman repeated. "Go away."

"Why you little-" the midget ground out, but was interrupted by the large, fat Turban.

"Uhhh, guys." the bulky raider said. "This doesn't seem like a good idea. Remember last time we tried to rob a weird woman?"

The leader of the trio cringed suddenly at the memory. "I…" he paused suddenly, upon looking up at the person again, and something came to his attention that had slipped by him before.

On the person's back was a long object, wrapped up in a green cloth that matched her cloak in shade, which would explain why it escaped his notice initially. From the looks of it, there was a long shaft with a broad head, and though the group couldn't exactly see it, the object looked suspiciously like a spear. Needless to say, the leader suddenly found himself questioning his decision, as demonstrated by the look on his face, which went pale as sweat dripped down his brow.

He took a moment to compose himself, before turning around and beckoning to his usual group to huddle close, gesturing for the two lackeys to surround their quarry and keep her in check.

The brothers turned to each other, before shrugging and doing as told, holding their swords ready as they moved to either side of the cloaked woman, who simply sighed in irritation, tapping her foot impatiently.

"You… have a point." he reluctantly admitted once he was in whispering range of his two subordinates. "She reminds me a lot of that… other woman." he shuddered.

"Yeah, but I mean it's five-on-one." the midget tried to reason.

"But, we outnumbered the girl before, too." the fat Turban counter-argued, rubbing his forehead. "I still get headaches."

"Oh, come on; that had to be a one in a million chance. She's bluffing." the scrawnier one said.

"I don't know…" the leader said, rubbing his chin. "She seems pretty sure of herself. Not to mention that attitude of hers is pretty… familiar." he said pointedly, looking over in his shorter companion's direction. "Or do I need to remind you how you lost your last sword?"

Seemingly grasping what his leader was implying, the midget went pale, his body shaking as he recalled the deafening blast and the flash of light. "R-Right…" he shuddered. "Maybe we should just… let this one go."

The leader then looked over his shoulder. "Right then. Just follow my lead."

Recovering his former confidence in the face of this new adversary, the bandit leader stood straight and cleared his throat. "Y'know what? You aren't worth the trouble." he boasted, looking over at her with faux contempt, trying to save some face.

The woman almost visibly appeared to roll her eyes beneath the hat. "Whatever you say, big guy."

"You're kidding me?" asked the handsome Turban goon incredulously; obviously the more confident of the brothers. "After hours of waiting out here doing nothing, we're just running away? From one girl?"

"W-We aren't running! We're just… walking away from a troublesome situation. Besides, look at her cloak, she probably doesn't have much on her worth anything, anyways." he reasoned, his will faltering for a moment before recovering. "Now let's go. We have better things to do."

The leader turned and led his mounted allies away, clearly expecting his two other underlings to mount up and leave with them… Unfortunately-

"Sorry. Not happening." growled the same Turban, before turning towards the woman. "Listen, I don't know what they're on about, but I'm not going home empty handed." He glanced at his brother. "Grab her."

Hesitating only briefly, the more cowardly of the pair looked between his leader and his sibling, before giving in and sheathing his sword. "A-Alright. Just don't… cause trouble, miss." he said, grabbing the woman's shoulders.

"Alright." the more confident brother said. "Now, I'm just going to take anything valuable off you, and you can be on your way."

The woman sighed. "Weren't you listening to your boss? I don't have anything worth the trouble. So don't waste your time." she grunted in irritation.

"Really now…?" asked the Turban.

Then suddenly, a slick grin formed on his face as an idea came to him. "Well then, maybe you should consider joining up with us." he said slyly, carrying an almost sensual undertone. Most girls would have honestly found the situation very… stimulating. This one, however, seemed unimpressed if the little sigh was anything to go by.

Still, the man persisted.

"I mean, I'm sure everyone at camp would love to see a new face, right guys?" he asked over his shoulder, the nervous-looking Turban leader hesitating to even look his underling in the eye. Said underling then looked back towards the woman in question with a seductive grin… before making a really, _really_ big mistake. He reached up under her hat to brush her cheek.

"Especially a smart, pretty girl like-"

*Wham!*

"Gah! Fuck!" the man reeled back, taking a headbutt to the nose with enough force to bruise it significantly.

"Brother!" the younger of the two gasped in concern, releasing the woman's shoulders and rushing to the man's side. This had the added effect of allowing the girl to quickly readjust her hat, preventing anyone from seeing her features.

"Dammit!" shouted the man, drawing his sword with one hand as he held his rapidly-swelling nose with the other. "To hell with it! I'm just killing this-"

*Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum!*

"What!?" the leader asked as the earth around them began to rumble, his head twisting and turning in every direction as the other Turbans all prepared for some sort of confrontation.

"Oh hell." the midget grunted, before gesturing out to the east. "Imperials incoming!" he shouted, gesturing in the direction of a group of approaching soldiers flying the colours of Sousou's army, spears up and ready to engage, though they were still a few leagues out.

The brother with the swollen nose snarled. "Dammit…" he hissed, before turning back to the woman, who was giving off a distinctly smug aura, despite being unseen beneath the hat.

"The hell are Sousou's guys doing this far out of the way!?" shouted the midget in fear and surprise.

"Doesn't matter, we're leaving." ordered the leader. "Now!"

The handsome Turban continued to stare down the woman in the cloak with a glare from between his fingers. "Next time." he growled, staunching the blood with his own Turban.

There wasn't any further time to contemplate this annoyingly defiant woman before he was snatched up by the strong arms of the largest of his leader's posse, the fat man tossing him over his shoulder before the whole group turned tail and sprinted away from the soldiers, presumably in the direction of their camp.

"Sorry to inconvenience you! We'll be on our way!" shouted the Turban leader over his shoulder in a panic as the group ran off, fleeing their apparent pursuers.

The cloaked woman sighed and shook her head, before turning to look at the approaching imperials as they slowed their march, taking in the formation. There were seven in all, with the majority of their rank comprised of spear-wielding foot soldiers, though there was one person up on a wagon drawn by a couple horses, with a large wooden crate strapped to the cart, heavily bound as though to keep it from flying off of its own accord.

"Are you at all hurt?" asked one of the soldiers, rushing to the apparent "victim's" side, checking her for injury.

"Nah, I'm fine." said the woman. "Those fools couldn't land a hit if they tried."

"Good." the man nodded. "Alright then, if you're okay to walk, then I suggest getting to the next town quickly. Turban activity is on the rise and a young lady like you is a prime target. Even if you can defend yourself." he advised, before nodding to her and turning to leave. "Anyways, have a good day."

He was stopped, however, when another man stepped forward, apparently the leader of their group, given his slightly more ornate armour compared to the others. "Your hat." he said simply. "Remove it."

This intrigued the woman. "Beg your pardon?"

"There's word of a young woman unaffiliated with the Turbans stirring up trouble for Sousou in the region." the leader explained. "We can't be too sure."

"Sorry, it's bright out and I burn easy." the woman replied, a gloved hand coming up from within her cloak and pulling her hat down further over her face.

The commander's eyes narrowed in a glare as his hand drifted towards his sword. "Madam, I gave you an order. Under the rule of martial law, you are-"

*Thump! Creeeeeak! Bump!*

Suddenly, the crate in the back of their wagon began to jump and shake, the ropes binding it pulling taught and the wheels of the vehicle jarring as the whole structure began to shudder.

"Sir…?" asked the driver warily, edging away from the box and looking ready to leap from the cart at a moment's notice.

"Dammit all!" cried the commander, rushing towards the disturbance and giving the crate a thump with the pommel of his sword with a resounding *Whack!*

The cart sat still after that, whatever was in the crate having been cowed by the strike, but that didn't seem to quell the worries of the imperials. "The thing's getting more energetic." the commander stated, before turning to his troops. "Get moving. We need to get this back to the capitol with this." he ordered, seemingly forgetting the earlier tension with the young woman.

All of the soldiers immediately hopped to it, taking to the path once more with all haste, shooting each other nervous glances as they did so. And thus, the woman was left alone on the road once more.

"Che. Assholes." she grunted out.

"After I finish with those Turbans, I'll have to put Sousou's head on a pike…" she grunted to herself, before continuing down the road.

 **Xxxxxx Several hours later xxxxxx**

Kan'U and Roland's force marched through the area, their army seemingly having decreased in girth as they rode; most notably missing were a large number of their mounted troops, and the green-cloaked hunters that trained under Li. Now, all that was left were a cluster of covered wagons drawn by leather-clad oxen, and a large number of foot soldiers dressed in a more refined variant of the makeshift leather armour they'd used when fighting the Turbans, now marching around the vehicles in a semi-orderly fashion.

As the two military leaders rode at the front, Roland's horse suddenly stopped in its tracks as though having hit a wall, prancing uneasily in place and shaking its head, causing a few of the men nearby to step back in case it started kicking. "Hey… Woah. Easy." the cowboy calmly uttered, stroking the beast's mane.

It didn't take long before the horse began to calm, its body shuddering slightly for a moment afterwards, but it seemed to be put at ease by its rider's gentle urging. Meanwhile, Kan'U sat upon her own steed, which was also growing tense, but unlike Roland it took the spearmaiden a few seconds to get it under control. Once she had, she then turned to her master with a smile.

"I swear…" the black-haired woman said. "'tis not been a week since you chose the horse, and it is as though you have developed a life-long bond with it."

Roland simply shrugged. "What can I say? I'm good with animals." he replied, but then his expression turned from casual to perturbed. "Question is; what got 'em spooked to begin with?" he asked as he dismounted the horse and began to scan the ground in front of it for any sort of disturbance.

Before any more could be said or done, the rumbling sound of hooves approached from a distance, causing both military leaders to turn and look off to the left. The courier didn't notice the barest of flashes from the pip boy on his wrist.

A man clad in light armour was riding swiftly towards them- a young man at that, barely out of his teens-, causing a few of the militia soldiers to tense up and brace themselves for combat, only to relax a few moments later when they saw he wasn't wearing any sort of yellow on his person; a taboo colour, all things considered. Roland himself, however, stood and jogged over to meet the rider, standing off to the side of his marching force as they came to a halt.

"Sir!" shouted the scout as he approached, hopping off his horse and running up to meet Roland, panting heavily.

"What is it, man?" asked the courier calmly.

The younger man took a breath before delivering his message. "We've caught sight of a large, heavily-armed force of Turbans marching towards a junction in the road up ahead." he informed, before pausing to catch his breath again.

"Size and army composition?" the cowboy immediately pressed, his expression growing stern. No time for useless semantics.

"J-Just a bit larger than the force you have here… Lots of infantry and some archers…. No horses." the scout said between heavy breaths.

Roland sighed in apparent relief, removing his hat and running a hand through his hair. "Right." he said, turning to his retainer. "Aisha, go and ride out to the cavalry. Have them circle around the Turbans. I'll keep marching to meet the fuckers head-on, so when we start fighting, run 'em down from the flank."

Kan'U looked hesitant for a second, likely unwilling to leave her lord's side, before shaking her head rapidly to clear her doubts. "Yes sir!" she said, turning her horse in roughly the direction the messenger had come from

"Wait. That's not all." the scout hurriedly called, preventing the woman from leaving.

"Well, spit it out." Roland grunted impatiently.

Taking a swallow, the scout righted himself before responding. "There's a large civilian caravan not far off the Turban's course to the northwest of here. They'll get hit if things keep up the way they are." he explained quickly. "They have some soldiers guarding them, but there's only about twenty of them. It's not enough to fend off much more than a raiding party… this sort of force will roll over them."

"Damn!" hissed Kan'U with a rare scowl on her face, before turning to her lord for instruction.

Roland, for his part, seemed annoyed by the revelation, but managed to temper himself and keep a level head. "Right then. Aisha; go ride ahead and round up the civvies. Get them out of there fast, even if they have to drop their bags and run." he ordered, before turning to the scout who delivered the warning. "Have the cavalry ride up and meet with her along the road. Protect the refugees until they reach safety. After that, I'm trusting command of the mounted force to Kan'U."

"Yes Sir!" called the scout, running back to his horse and immediately riding off to meet with the cavalry force.

Kan'U paused for a moment and looked back at her lord. "Take care." she said solemnly.

Roland lowered his glasses and gave the woman a brief wink. "I always do darlin'. You stay safe too."

The woman smiled and nodded, before riding out to intercept the merchant caravan.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Roland turned to one of his soldiers and beckoned the woman forward. "You; c'mere."

She stepped up nervously, snapping a very military-esque salute. "Y-Yes sir?" she stuttered out.

"Take my horse and go find Li's rangers." Roland instructed.

"Y-Your horse!?" she asked in surprise, a few soldiers cringing at the implication; clearly, Roland was _very_ attached to the animal.

"Yes. My horse." he repeated. "Have Li bring his hunters up and take a position nearby the road to the northwest. Have him set up an ambush."

"A-Alright…" the bewildered young lady said, before shaking her head and snapping to attention, standing up strait. "I mean, yes sir!"

"Good on you, girl." Roland replied as the soldier mounted up on his horse.

She had some trouble getting the beast under control, but it soon calmed when Roland himself rested his hand on its flank. "Hush…" he told it gently. "Do as she says, and stay safe."

The horse gave an affirmative huff, stomping its hoof once, before the woman cracked the reigns. "Alright! Hiya!" she called, and with that they were off.

Roland himself nodded in affirmation, before turning to his soldiers. "Alright then; get the lead out people!" he cried, before turning and striding up to the head of the attack force. "Double-time! We've got some Turbans to thrash!"

"Huurrraahh!" a resounding cheer erupted from the ranks as everyone took off at a run, hurrying to make it to the battlefield before the chance to fight passed them by.

 **Xxxxxx Meanwhile; with the caravan xxxxxx**

The caravan in question was rather large, with several dozen civilians and a couple covered wagons filled with goods, all of whom were mildly beleaguered from their long time on the road, but seemed to mostly be in a good state to make the rest of the journey.

The large group travelled along the road at an almost casual pace, their guard in a rather disorganized marching pattern, as though a testament to how easy they were expecting the job to be. Get the civilians from point A to point B, get paid, go home and drink; it also probably didn't hurt that they might get the chance to gut a few Yellow Turbans along the way, which was always good fun. At this rate, they ought to make it to the next town within the hour, not accounting for any variables.

It seemed, however, that nobody was taking them up on the challenge of attacking them, so the armed men and women of the caravan guard were stuck chatting amongst themselves and occasionally the merchants and farmers of the caravan itself.

"So, what's this whole thing about, anyways?" asked a young man, looking over to an older veteran.

The man glanced back at him. "What do you mean?"

"This is a pretty big migration." the young soldier clarified. "It's been a while since I've seen this many people travel together in one big group."

"You have a point." grumbled the veteran. "Between the soldiers, the bandits, and the Turbans, it's not really advised that you walk around with this many people. Especially if you're loaded up with a lot of stuff like this." He then quirked a brow as he glanced over at his compatriot. "But we've been travelling for days, so why ask now?"

"Story progression." the reply was simple. **(2)**

"What?" came the confused response.

"I got the gist of it back in the town where they hired us, but I just got curious, so I want to know more about their story." the young pup elaborated.

"Oh." grunted the senior guard. "Well, to answer your question; this is a whole bunch of people moving around for different reasons." He then gestured over to a group of wealthier-looking people. "Those ones there are merchants. Don't need to tell you why they're moving from town-to-town.

His finger then moved to some of the people near the front of the caravan. "This lot here are looking to get away from the border, trying to avoid the conflict where it's thickest."

"And what about those people near the back?" asked the young man.

The older male shrugged. "Came down from the far north a couple weeks ago and joined up in the last town. They don't say much else about it, and I don't care enough to pry; they pay us, so we do our job." he said, before trailing off and looking around him conspiratorially.

He then leaned in a little closer and started to speak in a hushed tone. "But, I've been hearing rumors…" he muttered "… they say there's a huge group of scattered bandit raiding parties that wander around up north, attacking anyone and everyone; soldiers, Turbans, other bandits, and even each other when they meet up. People say that they're so vicious and messed up that even the Turbans aren't dumb enough to mess with 'em."

"Seriously? Sounds like they're just a bunch of dumb brutes." the young man said.

"Heh, well that isn't all." the veteran chuckled. "There's stories that they use some sort of ' _dark_ _magic'_ to burn and loot villages." he said mockingly. Clearly he didn't put much stock in the legend.

"Hah!" the other man barked in laughter. "What a load of-"

"Turbans, up ahead!" came a cry from one of their rank near the front, causing the mercenaries to perk up, many of their numbers drawing their weapons and jogging up to the front to meet the attackers.

Said Turbans were about a dozen strong, all of which looking cocky despite being outnumbered. "Well-well… look what we got here." one of the raiders said, the masked man stepping up to speak with their apparent victims. "You all look like a smart bunch of people, so I'll put this plainly. Hand over your valuables and your supplies, and I'll do you a favor and let you all… go… free…" he trailed off upon seeing who he was speaking with.

As he was speaking, one man stepped up in front to represent the mercenary group. To say he was tall was an understatement; at a glance, one would guess he stood roughly 6.5 feet tall and carried a huge great sword on his back that looked like it weighted at least as much as one of the wagons, ox included. His head was covered in silver-grey hair pulled into a braided ponytail, a large silvery beard encircling his mouth, groomed to perfection.

In contrast to the neatness of his facial hair, a scar came down diagonally across his left eye and marred his cheek and jawline, looking like three claw marks from a large cat, though both eyes were still functioning, each one a dark brown that glared down in contempt and annoyance.

"Oh? That's awfully generous of you." the man grunted sarcastically. "Especially considering you're outnumbered by more experienced and better equipped mercenaries."

"I… well…" the Turban grunted, chuckling nervously.

The man seemed to grow several feet as he stared down at the fools who dared to insult him with their presence. "Know this, Raider scum; we are the Hong Gou!" he declared proudly, showing off a metal plate on the front of his leather armour, upon which a red wolf's head insignia was bolted. "Every job we do, we will see through to the end at any cost, and you are in our way. So I suggest you _stop_ being in our way."

"H-Hong Gou, huh?" asked the Turban shakily, looking about ready to piss himself. "I'll… uhh… I'll remember that."

He glanced nervously over at the plains to his left, where the barest glimpse of a dust cloud could be seen peeking up over the horizon. "So… uhh… you can go on your way."

"Humph… how courteous." the tall man grunted, before the Turbans retreated back to the side of the road. The caravan was left to pass without any resistance, though one of the Hon Gou mercs stopped in front of the Turbans and twitched like he was about to attack, causing a couple of them to flinch back with a yelp.

Some of the guys laughed as they watched the bandit wannabes shrink away like frightened children, and quietly wait for the group to pass by.

The Turbans waited a while, and only let out a sigh of relief when the mercenaries were safely out of view, cresting a hill about a mile away. "The boss is going to be angry that we let them leave…" said one of the Turban underlings to their current leader.

"You kidding?" the man replied with a smirk as his confidence returned. "He's going to give us all first pick of the haul for finding that caravan!" he claimed with a wide smile. "Looks like those soldiers we were told about passed by quick, and that group should be a hell of a lot easier for our boys to take down."

"Guess the army must've had something better to do than defend their own people, eh?" chuckled one Turban, before turning to his leader. "Anyways, should I do the thing?"

"You know it." the leader replied, pulling out an ornate, gold-plated, wooden pipe from his pocket and stuffing it with some dried leaf.

As he did this, the man who asked the question pulled a bow from his back and withdrew an arrow from his quiver. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a paper talisman with Chinese characters scrawled on its surface, which he then proceeded to bind to the arrow with a length of twine.

He nocked the arrow and drew back the bowstring, aiming at a diagonal angle from their position so the arrow would fly roughly in the same direction as the caravan, then without so much as a twang the arrow was let loose… and promptly burst into a spear of shimmering, blue flames high into its arc. The blue shine drifted off alongside the caravan's path, far above and behind them so as not to draw any attention from those below.

As he watched the silent signal burn out into the ether high in the sky, the leader pulled down his cloth mask and took a long drag on his pipe. "Get your stuff together. We'll follow from a distance and wait for the others to attack before moving in." he said to his underlings, and the others marched.

The man's face contorted into a cruel smirk as he and his group retreated into the hills. "This ought to be fun…"

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **Alright, that's a wrap!**

 **(1):** I honestly couldn't figure out what they were doing here in the VN. They said their troops were tired from "Constant deployment" but they hadn't met with Kousonsan yet, so there was no drawn-out conflict.

In the end, I figure that they were talking about the long march, so I decided to tweak it a bit. Basically they set up camp rather than pushing forward, because let's face it; you can say it's better to have your troops there to provide quick support, but if they're about as effective as firing off spitballs into the Turban ranks, then the best you'll get out of them is piling up the corpses to patch up holes in the wall.

 **(2):** Yes that was a fourth wall joke. Deal with it.

 **Wow! That was a long one!**

… **Not the chapter; the wait for me to update this story. Though I believe you'll all be happy to find that I've got a bit of inspiration in me, so you might get a new chapter of this fic sooner rather than later.**

 **Now, before anything else; onto the comment responses!**

 **Drake202:** Yeah, ED-E does seem like he's going down the heroic path, which should be considerably easier to pull off than you might originally think for just a little guy, considering that he's still a heavily-armoured military robot.

On the topic of Roland, however; I don't think he seems like much of the type to take orders unless he's getting paid for it. I like to think that the closest things he has to a "boss" are the Mojave, its inhabitants, and the call of adventure in his heart.

 **Lasse2731:** Yeah, Google Translate's a bit of a janky system in general, but at least it managed to get your point across.

As for your comment; I actually do plan on drawing some inspiration from Fallout 4, seeing as the story of Koihime Musou seems eerily similar to the idea of settlements in the Commonwealth. He finds people, helps them, and is made into their leader, though Roland is clearly reluctant at first.

He also seems to have made a habit of upgrading the villages' defenses against invasion by building and reinforcing walls and organizing the people into a well-equipped militia. Again, not unlike Fallout 4.

On the topic of guns, I doubt he has the ability to outright craft them in huge quantities, seeing as he lacks a number of materials at the moment, but he is definitely equipped to repair his own when he gets a breather. It's the ammo that's the issue, considering that he doesn't even know if these people have access to gunpowder.

If they did, he would be coming across a number of gun-toting Turbans in his travels, but people are still using swords and bows, so they clearly don't have even the technology to build an harquebus yet.

Hell; they don't even seem to have crossbows.

 **Eurigos:** I know, right?

 **Mandalore the freedom:** Ohh… I am trying so desperately to avoid saying anything spoiler-y. Good job on making me cringe from the amount of information I'm trying to withhold by reading your comment.

This is an interesting topic, to be sure, but I'm not going to tell you much here and now, simply because much of Roland's past will be described through flashbacks, dream sequences, and broken information he divulges to his companions in common conversation.

I'll also say that we've not seen the last of the Mojave, and that future chapters may include some scenes involving his followers and friends back home. If only because the Think Tank is just so cartoonishly insane, and you _know_ they've not had their last scene in the spotlight.

Either way, I'm glad I caught your attention with my fic, I look forward to disappointing you. Haha.

 **Well, that's the last of the housekeeping for the last chapter. Not many comments on that one compared to the usual avalanche, but I'm not disappointed; I know I'm still popular.**

 **Anyways! I'm sorry for the lack of action in this one, but you're going to see plenty of it next chapter as Roland defends the caravan from their imminent demise!**

 **This chapter was more of a precursor, as well as a recap for the changes that Roland had made in the month-long gap since the last chapter, seeing as the minor changes and lack of action would be pretty dull to show you. Basically just imagine the Fallout 4 settlement builder mixed with some of the trade aspects from a macro-strategy game like Civilization or something of the like. Now stretch that over a month with Roland occasionally sniping bandits from on top of the walls to test the accuracy on that bandit rifle he looted in the prologue.**

 **Aside from the building of Roland's new pseudo-minutemen faction, you also caught your first glimpse of Chinese magic in this fic, small though it may have been. I just want to establish that it is still very much a real aspect of this world, even if it is an alternate universe version of Koihime Musou, and that there will be other examples throughout the story.**

 **We can't have Roland go completely unopposed in terms of power, after all. That would be dull.**

 **Though, I should also mention that I know precious little about Chinese culture and tradition, which I feel fits with this story told mainly from the perspective of a man from another place who doesn't even know what a "China" is. With that said, I would appreciate if anyone who actually studies or lives with/among the culture were to come out in a PM and telling me what they know so I don't end up offending anyone.**

 **That aside; you saw today that there was some teasers to the future of the story, but you might have to look a little deeper to figure out where I'm going with some of the plot.**

 **Who is this mystery woman?**

 **What was in that box the soldiers had?**

 **Are those caravan guard going to be recurring characters in the persistent universe?**

… **Well, you could probably guess the answers to all three of those questions, but I plan on maintaining at least some meagre attempt at keeping up the façade that I'm good at suspense.**

 **For those of you who genuinely can't figure it out, I guess you'll just have to keep reading until you do!**

 **Speaking of; I'm out of things to say, so I'll leave it here for today. I invite you all to read again when the next chapter comes out, and if you don't feel like waiting for the next update, I still have two other stories on my page for you to check out in the meantime.**

 **Alright now, I'm done! Thanks for stopping by and I'll see all you awesome people in the next chapter!**

 **Buh-Bye!**


	8. The Strategic Element

Divinity and the Devil's Luck

Chapter 6: The Strategic Element

 **Soo…. Hey guys. Been a while, huh?**

 **Actually, I started typing this immediately after updating the previous chapter, but I figure that by the time I actually get this chapter out, it'll have been at least a month, so I just wanted to cover that base right away.**

 **Anyways, today I'm going to show off more of Roland's leadership skills, as well as a few… other points of interest.**

 **Yeah, this is going to get a bit… special.**

"Speech"

' _Thought/Reading'_

" **Deep/Demonic"**

"Synthesized/Robotic Speech"

*Onomatopoeia* (sound effect)

 **(Author's Note)**

 **Xxxxxx Scene Change xxxxxx**

 **xxxxxx** Scene Break

 **I don't own Koihime Musou, Fallout, or any related properties. Otherwise, things would get a lot weirder.**

 **Speaking of weird, and without further ado; on with the show!**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

*Beep, beep, beep…*

The sound of the heart monitor was the only noise that met the audio receptors of the hovering Dr. Bourous- the screen displaying his mouth covered by a cartoonishly large doctor's mask- went to work on the tarp-covered entity under a light, fiddling with the beating heart and prodding it with a small tool, being ever-so gentle with the organ for fear of rupturing it…

Before promptly reaching in with a clawed limb and simply plucking out the heart, throwing it off to the side.

"There we go!" he declared in his usual loud, bombastic tone. "Without that soft, squishy meat sack getting in the way, I now have room to place the far more durable and reliable blood pump-o-matic!" he shouted, snatching up a small spherical object with artificial arteries hanging off it, flailing about as though they had a mind of their own. He then stuffed the machine into the chest seemingly at random, hooking up arteries to the "proper" places where they were attached with some stitching.

"Borous!" called a feminine voice from the other room. "What are you doing in there!?"

"What does it look like?" he asked, turning to look as Dala entered the room. "I'm-"

The bio-scientist was interrupted. "It doesn't matter. We still have a job to do, if you recall."

"Both of you, be quiet and hurry up!" shouted another voice from the other room. "Your slowness is interfering with the project!"

A sigh escaped from Borous' audio projectors as both he and Dala turned to leave the room.

"This will help us find him?" asked a second, more youthful female voice, causing him to take pause and turn off to his right just before exiting the room.

"I don't know. Maybe." replied the mad brain in a jar aloofly, turning one of his monitors to look at some obscure part of the room, despite there being nothing there aside from a costume on a hanger.

The invisible spectator seemed to be uplifted by this statement, despite its noncommittal nature. "Alright. Please hurry back."

Rather than respond, Borous just grumbled to himself and floated out of the small surgery room, climbing the stairs into what looked like a common suburban house.

After meeting Dala, he followed her out of the house, only to be met with four walls of sheet metal and a ceiling comprised of a metal frame, with some bits of plywood bolted on in places to give the appearance that there might have been some cover there at one point, now long-gone.

Meeting them out in the front yard of the house were the other floating mad scientists of the Big Mountain, their robotic limbs whirring impatiently.

"Finally! What were you doing in there Borous?" asked Dr. 0 impatiently.

"I was creating science!" he cried out. "A great and powerful new creature that will breach the boundaries of-"

"Yes, yes, we don't have all day!" Klein interjected. "Anyways, we need to head over to the Think Tank. The anomaly seems to have subsided again and we must study it while we have this chance!"

"Oh, right!" Borous said, turning to leave the walled area ahead of the other "scientists" who all rushed to keep up with him, with Dala taking up the rear.

As they exited the old compound, they looked out over the expanse of the Big MT and found themselves met with an unsettling sight; the dome that once housed the Think Tank was now burst wide open, the sides of the bowl structure it left behind jagged and shattered like a melon that had been hollowed out, a swirling array of lights shimmering within and casting out rays in all directions.

Off to the side, one could see the structure that once stood proudly on top of said dome, now laying on the ground like a discarded bottle cap, though it seems to have been flipped to face the right way up, and was currently undergoing repairs.

The apparent cause for this salvaging project was made evident by the dozens of yellow and red entities scurrying across the surface of the structure, carrying sheets of metal between them and blasting them with blue-tinted lasers to weld them in place.

"I don't see why that thing is even being repaired to begin with." griped Klein impassively. "We hardly use it, and it's not like-"

"He's alive…" Dala interrupted solemnly, before hurrying her pace to get ahead of her group.

0 turned to 8 with what could pass as a skeptical look. "She seems awfully sure of that." he grunted.

"(###)… %^ … ^^&." came a long line of scrambled sound from the mute doctor.

"Hmph." 0 sighed "Just because he's survived worse doesn't mean he hasn't just been getting lucky. Even assuming he's still alive and in one piece, he could be half way across the continent with that blast radius. Wouldn't be surprised if he landed in the ocean and got gobbled up by some mutant whale or something horrible."

"{…} ^^&*** !" replied 8.

"Of course I don't intend to voice my opinion around Dala. She's been obsessing over her 'favourite teddy bear' ever since he left and would break open my casing like an egg if I even suggested it wasn't alive." the former man sighed heavily, floating ahead.

Not long after that, the group approached the shattered remains of the Think Tank… only to stop as a sixth floating brain hovering before him, flanked by a pair of large, mechanical, yellow and red scorpions.

"Finally… you have arrived, Think Tank!" the figure declared, staring down at the group with a single eye.

As they stared up at the brain in question, only one word escaped Klein's speakers…

"Mobius…"

 **Xxxxxx Meanwhile; Merchant Caravan xxxxxx**

The thundering of hooves approaching from afar drifted over the plains and caught the attention of the mercenary company escorting the caravan, all of whom immediately readied their weapons. The earlier encounter with those Turbans had alerted them to the bandit presence in the area, and the hilly terrain made it difficult to tell where the sound was coming from or how many there were.

"Alright everyone!" called the colossus of a man leading the group, grabbing the attention of everyone present with his booming voice. "Get the civilians closer to the center and take up arms!" he ordered, before gesturing to a tall woman. "You there! Get on one of the wagons and tell us what you can see!"

There was a resounding "Yes sir!" from the group, and they went about herding the civilians like sheep into the center of the formation, before taking up arms and surrounding them.

The flap to one of the covered wagons parted, catching the goliath's attention. "Wh-What's going on?" asked a small, feminine voice.

The mercenary leader turned to see a small blond girl with short hair poke her head out of the wagon, looking about in confusion.

"We aren't sure." he said bluntly, before turning up to look at his scout. "But I would _like_ an update on the situation! Speak up, girl!"

"Y-Yes sir!" she squeaked. "It's just a single rider, heading our way!"

A bushy silver brow quirked. "The hell? Just one?" he asked.

"Yes sir!" the scout confirmed, looking about.

She was about to descend from her perch, but was stopped when the man held up a hand. "They could be hiding more in the hills. Stay up there and keep an eye on our surroundings."

After hearing the situation, the blond girl crawled back into the wagon and took a seat on one of the benches at the side, right across from a cloaked figure. "It seems that there's a rider approaching. He's alone."

This caused the figure to perk up a bit under their hood. "Is it him…?"

"There's no confirmation yet." the girl said with a frown.

Wordlessly, the woman stood and left the cart, pulling her cloak tighter to ensure she would go unrecognized.

"Milady?" the girl questioned, following her lead.

They left the wagon just as the horseman came into the view, turning onto the road and following it toward them. The hooded figure tried to push her way towards the front of the crowd, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her from getting too close. Turning up, she saw the bearded leader of the mercenaries standing there, his man-cleaver of a sword slung over his shoulder.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked.

The woman looked up at him slightly. "Am I not allowed out of the wagon?"

"No." grunted the man. "But if the imperials were to find you-"

"It's not a soldier." the woman cut him off.

He turned down to her with a quirked brow. "How can you be so sure?"

*Neeeeiiiigghhh!*

The whinny of a horse rang across the plains as the person in question came into view.

The group had never before seen this dark-haired woman in the green dress, but it seemed as though she was looking for them.

"T-Turbans…" was the first breathless word out of her mouth, confusing the mercenaries and sending a wave of unease through the crowd.

"What about them?" asked the gray-haired man, his thick brow furrowed. "Is someone under attack?"

"P-Pardon me." the woman said, catching her breath. "The Turbans have caught wind of your caravan, and it would seem they intend to cut you off up ahead."

"What!?" cried the man immediately afterwards. "How many!? Where are they posted!?"

"Calm yourself." the young warrior prompted. "They are still marching in from the north and intend to meet you at the crossroads a two miles west of here." she said, gesturing up the road with her spear. "There are enough of them to overrun the small force you have here

"If you hurry now, we can move the civilians to the-" this time, it was she who was cut off by the man.

"Scout, can you confirm her claims!?" he asked the woman atop the wagon, who immediately whipped around and began searching the plains around them.

Her eyes widened marginally as she caught something. "Dust cloud on the horizon!" she called. "Either there's a large movement of imperial troops, or she's telling the… damn!"

"What do you see!?" asked the bulky man.

His question was answered, however, when an arrow soared high into the sky, whistling loudly before erupting into a spark of brilliant yellow flames. A signal arrow fired by a Turban scout hidden in the hills.

"Dammit!" cried the messenger woman. "They are likely to march on this location now!"

"I know what it means!" griped the man, before rounding on his troops. "All of you, unhitch the animals! We need to leave fast and the luggage is weighing us down!"

"W-Wait! You can't just leave our things here for those _savages_ to take!" one of the merchants argued.

"Then you can pull the carts yourself!" the mercenary growled. "Anyone who wants to _live_ and buy more stuff later on; mount up on a beast and get moving!"

That shut up any further arguments, and the mercenaries went about helping the civilians unhitch their mounts.

"Excuse me." said the cloaked woman, gesturing to the nearby tall hill. "There's enough flat land between us and them that those vantage points should be enough for your archers to take down a number of their lighter troops easily."

"Good call." he said, before gesturing to his ranged forces. "Archers! On the hills!"

"Sir…" one of the mercenaries said, approaching him with a concerned look.

"What is it?" he grumbled.

"We…" the young man looked around conspiratorially. "We don't have enough horses to carry the civilians all at once." he explained in a hushed whisper, hoping to avoid panic. "Most were on-foot or in wagons."

A scowl crossed the leader's face. "Dammit all." he griped. "My life just keeps getting harder."

"If I may…" the dark-haired woman said, approaching the pair. "Perhaps we might load up the sick, weak, and children first?"

The man looked down at her almost contemptuously. "And who are you to tell me how to do my job?" he asked.

"She isn't wrong." advised the veiled woman.

"I know that!" the man huffed. "It was the plan from the start. But I still want to know who this woman is."

The said spearmaiden simply bowed. "I apologize for my lack of manners. I am Kan'U of Zuho." she introduced herself. "And I am but a humble servant of my master, who has ordered that the people here be evacuated."

The introduction caught the cloaked woman's attention, but the man simply grunted. "Fair enough, I guess." he said, before turning to address the crowd.

"Alright; listen up!" he bellowed, and everyone immediately snapped to attention. "We're short a few horses, here! So here's what's going to happen! Pregnant women, children, mothers, and the elderly are going to ride out with some of our men to the closest town!"

"W-Wait! What about the rest of us!?" cried one man.

He was drowned out by a scoff from an older man. "And what do you mean elderly!? I was with the military not long ago, and I can still hold a spear with the best of 'em!" he boasted.

The large man smirked as he saw the spark in the older man. "Well then, if you're so confident you can stay, then we'll let the _little boy_ over there run away with his tail between his legs!" he shouted mockingly.

The blond girl, however, seemed to disagree with the sentiment. "Please! Everyone, calm down!" she beckoned, her voice sounding serine even in a worried state. "Our main concern is anyone who is unable to defend themselves! If you are able-bodied, then I ask that you please allow those who are in need to go ahead of you! The horses will return for others later!"

"By that time, we'll be overrun!" squeaked a neurotic-looking woman. "They won't return in time!"

"Then run away!" hissed the big mercenary. "If you think you're better off out on the plains than hiding behind us, then go for it!"

"In the meantime; all soldiers start pushing those wagons!" he instructed his company. "We'll make a barricade in front of the hills for our archers to fire over and to wall us off from the initial charge!"

"What!? You're using _our_ goods to protect your hides!?" cried an outraged merchant,

"Apparently you're not aware of this." said one man in the crowd. "But you just _barely_ count as an 'able-bodied man' so you won't be leaving with the first convoy."

Murmurs and arguments broke out amongst the people, and everything looked like it was about to explode into violence.

The tall captain massaged the bridge of his nose. "We could just leave them…" he muttered to himself. "We can walk away now and let them die. Nobody would be able to tell…"

Despite the mercenaries' best efforts to reign in the crowd, they were unable to hold back the panicked people, who began to turn on each other and their supposed protectors. It was Kan'U, however, who stepped forward. "Quiet! All of you!" she shouted in an unusually harsh voice.

"Who the hell-" the merchant was cut off when he found the tip of a spear pressed against his throat, turning his face pale.

"You are all acting no better than the Turban barbarians baring down on us!" she declared. "Unhappy with your lot, you lash out at anyone nearby; you are sinking to the same sort of monstrous behavior as they!"

That shut them all up right quick, and Kan'U noticed this, so she pulled her spear back and slammed the butt into the ground. "Now listen here! My lord marches on this location with a force far greater than even the Turbans can muster alone, and he will cast them down easily! For his arrival, I expect you all to show proper respect and act as civilized human beings in his presence! Am I clear!?"

That speech both heartened the people and thoroughly cowed them, causing them to bow their heads in shame before the clear superior.

"Good!" she cried. "Now, help those mercenaries secure the wagons and make a wall! Anyone who isn't of able body, mount up! I have been instructed to guide you to the nearest town!"

Her voice was enough to spur even the most reluctant civilians into action, commanding them in ways that the sell-sword could not, much to his combined surprise and chagrin.

Kan'U turned to the man and bowed. "I apologize for wresting control from you. They are yours once more, as I must be on my way." she said, before a smile broke out on her face. "I shall return with a mounted force. Assuming the Turbans haven't fled at the sight of my lord." She laughed a little as she made her way to the horse she rode in on.

She was stopped, however, when the hooded woman called out to her. "Pardon me…" she said, causing Kan'U to turn and look at her. "Your lord… who is he?"

At that question, the woman couldn't help the smile that slowly spread across her features. She stood proudly and looked over both the girl and the mercenary. "His name is-"

 **Xxxxxx Several minutes later; Roland's group xxxxxx**

"Lord Roland!" called a female voice.

Said man scowled as he stared down at his revolver, though it was unclear whether it was at the title, or the woefully empty ammunition holster.

"What'd ya want?" he asked, closing up the chamber.

Said woman was the rider he sent out to find Li's archers, looking like she'd ridden through a forest with the twigs in her hair and the scuffed clothes that appeared as though she had attempted to adjust them hastily before approaching him.

"I-I apologize." she said, her head hung low. "I could not find Li. His troops are spread out in small scouting parties and have little knowledge of where each other is. I figured speed was of the utmost importance, so I left the message with the leaders of every party I encountered."

"It's fine." the man shrugged, completely casual as he and his men marched up along the road. "Thing about that group is that Li's worked with a few of 'em before. From what he tells me, they communicate with scouts, so the message will reach him surprisingly fast, even if most of 'em are still green."

"That is… impressive." said the woman, dismounting the horse to stand next to her lord, offering the reins to him.

He took the horse, but to her surprise he didn't mount it. "He's a hard-ass when it comes to training his scouts." Roland said with a proud smirk. "Reminds me of the desert rangers back home… maybe we can induct 'em when we meet back up."

"Desert rangers?" the woman asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, really. You might see some time." he said, but then paused. "Wait… you didn't call me sir?"

The comment caused the woman to balk. "I-I'm sorry! My deepest apologies!" she said bowing at the hip.

That stopped, however, when Roland put a hand to her shoulder and made her stand up straight. "Please… _please_ don't bow." he pleaded, his eyebrow twitching. "You have… absolutely no idea how refreshing it is _not_ being worshiped unconditionally every time I open my mouth." he said, giving a heavy sigh.

The man looked out over his marching troops. "I'm gonna be honest here; I've been treated like royalty for over a year and a half, both here and where I live… I feel like I'm gonna have to start spiking my whisky with med-x at this rate!" for the first time since the woman had met him, she felt as though she was seeing his real face, which was that of a haggard, and really, _really_ irritated old veteran.

The girl wouldn't be surprised if he was hiding a few grey hairs under his hat.

"I… uhh…" she hesitated, looking totally caught off-guard by the outburst. "Are you alright?"

"I'm… I'm fine." Roland replied, taking a deep breath after his sudden, brief meltdown. He really, needed someone in his life who didn't worship him as a god.

"By the way; what's yer name?" he asked, brows furrowing. "I could'a sworn I met you somewhere."

"Oh, I guess I never introduced myself before…" the woman said. "My name is An-Jia."

"Anne?" Roland mimicked. "Well, I'm gonna need you to do me a favor."

"What is it?" she asked, caught half way between being confused and trying to remain respectful. "Whatever you like."

Roland turned his desperate gaze towards her. "I really need you ta' stay close to me… and be as disrespectful as possible."

"I… beg your pardon?" she asked, looking completely confused.

"Trust me. The best way you could possibly hope to serve me right now… is by _not_ serving me." he explained, exasperated. "So be as flippant and sarcastic as you can. Please."

"…" it took a moment for the request to register, all the while the woman stood there, looking blankly at him… before a small, soft smile crossed her features. "As you wish…" she said sinisterly.

A chill went up Roland's spine as she said that. "I… might end up regretting that later."

"Probably." said the woman with a sweet smile.

The man gave her a deadpan look over his glasses. "Honestly; I don't care." he said, throwing up his arms. "This is probably the _least_ tense I've felt in years." He declared as he began marching beside his army again.

"You _do_ realize we are heading into battle, correct?" the woman asked, trailing behind him.

"Which is amazing!" he said, laughing to himself. "This is where I belong!"

The sudden energy behind the man's disposition was… honestly disconcerting, all things considered, and even the army marched a few steps away from him. Seeing the typically grizzled, battle-hardened commander grinning so broadly as he marched towards the battle field was horribly offputting.

"So…" Roland started after a moment of walking. "You said you didn't introduce yourself before."

"Yeah." said the woman, before taking a more relaxed posture. "What of it?"

"Implyin' we met before?" he asked.

The woman looked at him with a quirked brow. "Yeah, don't you remember?" she asked, before looking up in thought. "But, I guess I was wearing a different outfit back then…"

"Still at a loss." the cowboy commented.

"Oh, right." Said the young soldier woman. "I was that one Turban from a while ago. Remember? The leader of the first group to join your cause after your initial victory."

Roland's eyes widened. "Wait, really?" he asked, looking her up and down in surprise. "Jeez, you cleaned up some."

"Well, being able to bathe for the first time in months was good for my image, it seems." she said with a smirk. "Also, if you keep looking at me like that, people might get the wrong idea."

"Huh? Oh! Sorry." Roland replied, turning away and adjusting his sunglasses. "I guess I'm just surprised yer a woman. Didn't think the Turbans accepted ladies." he explained.

"Who says I am?" asked the… man?

"Wait… you're not a girl?" asked Roland, looking even more surprised.

A sly smirk crossed the guy's face. "I never said I wasn't either. You just assumed I'm a woman from my delicate features, didn't you?"

"I… well sorry. Just most guys I meet are usually the 'gruff n' tough' kind, ya' know?" the courier said, clearing his throat awkwardly. "'cept Gannon, but even he's pretty built."

He paused, then, and turned back to the… person in question. "Wait, which _are_ you, then?"

That small, serene smirk remained on the androgynous person's features. "I wonder…"

"I should have asked you that before telling you to act disrespectful, shouldn't I?" asked Roland in a deadpan.

"I'm only following orders, sir…" said the "person" with the most sinister smirk he'd seen outside of the most nefarious members of his rogue's gallery.

"Oh God, I made a mistake." he groaned, rubbing his brow. "That's gonna bug me all week."

"It won't distract you on the field, will it?" he/she asked the lord.

"Nah." the man shrugged. "I'm still as sharp a shot as ever."

"Oh." the androgynous entity grunted. "…and here I was going to tell you. Can't have the lord falling in battle yet, can we?"

Shoulders sagged beneath Roland's duster. "God… dammit."

"Milord!" cried a man at the head of the marching formation. "The scouts report something!"

Without a thought, Roland mounted up on the horse, grabbing the reins and cracking them like a whip. "Hyup!" he barked, urging the beast forward.

It took off at a trot to the front of the formation, where Roland turned to stare out into the distance. "What is it?" he asked, looking out to the horizon.

"Out to the east." the soldier said, gesturing to a green-clad man on a hill.

Roland held out his hand, bringing his marching force to a halt, and then gestured for them get low and hide. Not too effective on open plains, but they were marching through hilly terrain, so if there was a large enemy force out there, then they would be blind to their presence until they were too close to react.

It was a good thing, too, because as the man rode up to the hill that the scout was on, he received a panicked gesture, prompting him to dismount and approach quietly on foot.

He deemed it wise to cooperate, so he did as requested and dropped off he back of his mount. "Stay here." he told his horse as he approached the scout, crouching low.

When he crested the upraised ground, he was met with an odd sight; a couple miles away, the road passed under the shadow of another, tall hill. Around the terrain was what looked like a circle of wagons posted like a broken fence there also appeared to be people bustling around between them, but they looked almost like ants, so it was hard to tell. Atop said hill was a line of soldiers lying in wait in the shadow of the mound, likely using the very peak as cover from returning archer fire and to avoid being seen.

It looked like they were fortifying for an attack.

What caught his attention, however, was that the force was positioned in a way that fortified them against an attack from the complete opposite direction of Roland's marching army. This was a good indicator of one of two possibilities. Something that the scout seemed to agree with as both men lay on their stomachs, observing the display.

"The way I figure it; either these are Turbans sent to stop our progress, in which case they're incompetent to the last man and can't tell which direction they're facing… or the caravan guard is a lot more organized than we thought they were."

Roland glanced over at the man. "Well, what d'you think?" he asked as he reached back and rifled through his pack.

"I can't see their colors from here." the man explained. "But, given what we've seen of the Turbans until now, I'd say either option is possible." he said with a chuckle.

A small, gravely laugh rumbled in the cowboy's throat. "Fair point. But, as much as I like ta' gamble, I'd rather not leave this to a coin flip." he said, pulling out a pair of binoculars from his bag and holding them up to his eyes. Adjusting the lenses a bit, Roland beheld a peculiar sight.

It would seem that the caravan was, indeed, the one to set up the fortified position… but it wasn't a bunch of organized citizens that were posted on the hill, like Roland's own militia force had started out. Rather, the civilians were herded into the middle of the circle of wagons, and a group of armored soldiers were the ones posted around the outside to fight off the supposedly incoming Turban attack.

He could tell that these soldiers were not of the Turbans ranks simply for the fact that they weren't slaughtering, raping, and stealing, but he could also see that they wore colors that weren't primarily the "headshot yellow" that he'd become accustom to gunning down.

What caught him unawares was the fact that they weren't the soldiers he'd seen flying Sousou's colors either, but were rather something totally different. These people wore auburn-dyed leather armor with studs planted in the shoulders and limbs, and the image of a snarling hound painted in a brighter red painted over their chests and backs, as well as several flags they'd seemingly set up to mark their territory.

Roland pulled the binoculars away from his face and handed them to his scout. "Know those markings?" he asked, getting a confused look from the man.

"Hm?" he grunted. "What is this? Some sort of augmented spygla- oh heavens! That's disorienting!" he pulled the glasses away from his face and rubbed his eyes.

He took a second to blink, before putting them back to his face and staring into them again, squinting a bit as he tried to focus his eyes. It was another moment before he answered. "I think I recognize that symbol…" he said with a hum.

"I've never seen it…" the courier replied, stroking his beard in contemplation.

"I wouldn't expect you to." the scout replied, pulling the binoculars away from his eyes again and blinking to readjust his vision. "Those are the Hong Gou. A mercenary band from up north."

"They dangerous?" Roland asked, taking back his binoculars.

"Only if they're being paid to kill you." the scout replied. "They're relatively new in the business, but they've been making a name for themselves fighting the northern barbarians and have been spreading south by absorbing other merc companies."

"So they're at least good in a fight." Roland said, before looking off to the distance and scanning the horizon to their left. "But exactly _how_ good would ya' say?"

Again, the scout shrugged. "Couldn't tell you exactly."

"Good enough to take on the Turbans?"

The man turned to his lord with a quirked brow. "There's about twenty of them. So, if their reputation is correct, it would take quite a few Turbans to bring down that sort of fortification."

"D'ya figure about a hundred would do it?" Roland asked, tapping his man's shoulder and pointing over to the situation on their left. Looking over, the scout balked as he saw another crowd of faceless figures coming into view just over the curvature of the land, marching towards the barricade that the Hong Gou had set up.

"In a word. Yes." the scout scowled.

"In more than one; I'd say we got our work cut out fer us." Roland quipped sliding down behind the hill on his back.

The scout followed suit, and they both stood to make their way towards the army, who had all taken a knee in the plains to lower their profile.

"So what's the plan?" asked the scout.

Roland took a deep breath and looked over his troops with a contemplative look. "We got about sixty soldiers here…" he mused, turning to his scout "How many would ya' say are with Li?"

"Twenty of the best rangers this side of the capital. All scouring the foothills of the Turbans as we speak." the man boasted jokingly. At least partly.

Roland smirked. "Yeah, we're gonna need Li to come 'round sooner, rather than later." he said, turning to the man. "Go an' give him a status update. He should know what ta' do."

"What about you, milord?" the scout inquired.

"I got a plan. You just keep to the rangers and make sure they're in position." the courier explained.

The ranger snapped a salute. "Yes sir!" he said, before jogging off and getting lost in the hills.

Watching the man go until he was out of sight, the cowboy then turned to the troops and eyed them up. "Now what am I gonna…" he mused to himself… before a cool wind brushed past his form, tousling the grass around them.

An idea occurred to him.

"Anne!" he called out. "Get yer butt up here!"

"What is it?" asked the lithe person, restraining herself from calling him "sir" as had become the custom.

"You know anything 'bout leading soldiers?" he asked as he/she approached.

He hummed. "Well, I _did_ have a squad under my command before we left the Turbans. I think there's a few of them in this crowd, but any large force is beyond me." they said, before turning to look at him. "Why do you ask…?"

A smirk crossed Roland's face. "Because… I have a plan." he said, handing her his bag.

 **Xxxxxx Meanwhile; Big MT xxxxxx**

The Think Tanks "stood" across from Mobius and his robo-scorpions, staring each other down.

This went on until Dr. 0 spoke up. "Uhh… guys?"

Every monitor turned to look at him, the animatronic arachnids' included. "Yes, what is it, O?" grouched Klein. "We are in the middle of something important here!"

"Important!?" asked Dr.0, frustrated. "We've been standing here for about half an hour just staring at each other!"

The rest of the group just floated in place for a moment, staring.

"Wait…" said Mobius, grabbing everyone's attention. "Who are you all again?"

 **Xxxxxx Several minutes later; China xxxxxx**

The Hong Gou mercenaries stood straight at attention as they witnessed the Turban hoard advancing on their ranks

Some of the civilians had grabbed hold of farming equipment and stood behind the more trained mercenaries, while the more cowardly and frail stayed to the back of the formation.

It was because of this cowardice that one man was put in a position at the back, where he in turn bore witness to a second platoon of soldiers marching towards their little group from the hills. "U-Uhh, guys!" he called back towards the mercenaries.

As expected, the tall man with the beard was the one to respond, stomping over with a scowl on his face. "Oh, what _now_?" he asked, turning to see the approaching group.

He stepped forward with a scowl, watching the soldiers intently until they met up just beyond the wagons. "Hold there!" he called as the group came within five meters. "Care to introduce yourselves? We're a bit on-edge, in case you can't tell."

"I am An-Jia." said the "woman" at the front of the formation with a serine smile. "We are with an army coming from the east, under the command of Lord Roland." explained the leader of the troop.

At her back, there was a green bag of some sort, holding a good load that seemed to almost be too much for the lithe frame to support, and in his hand was a short… staff of some sort. It consisted of a dark metal tube about as long as a common man's forearm, with a wooden "hilt" of some description, reinforced with metal braces.

"Yeah, I heard of you lot from the girl on the horse." the older mercenary grunted, before a glare crossed his features, staring down at the person before him and the odd weapon in their hand. "But how do I know you're not a Turban spy, here to stab us in the back when the army arrives?"

Said person's smile grew even more. "Well, you don't." he said softly. "But do you have many options here. You're rather helpless as it is."

That almost mocking comment caused a fuzzy white brow to twitch violently. "I only need _one_ option!" he shouted, incensed. "I could take them all on myself, then turn around and have you for desert!"

His sword came up and he poised it at the shorter person's throat. "I don't care if you're a Turban or with the so-called 'backup' on the way here! Now piss off and tell your _'lord'_ we don't need his-!"

"Hold on!" cried a feminine voice from within the ranks of the civilians, who all parted to reveal the cloaked woman and her short, blond friend.

The old mercenary turned partly to face her, keeping his sword arm ready despite the still-smiling warrior not making a move against him, or looking even remotely intimidated. "What? You _really_ trust this one?" he asked the pair.

Said girls approached the scene, looking over the twelve gathered soldiers. "My lady?" asked the shorter female, glancing up at the woman.

"The Turbans are not far and will be upon us soon. We can't afford to refuse any help." she informed both of her companions, much to the chagrin of the tall man, who rested the great blade on his shoulders.

"I still don't like it." he said, glancing over at the new soldiers. "But… I trust your judgement."

The cloaked woman nodded, before approaching the group herself, standing beside the tall man as she stared into the eyes of the militia soldier. "Tell me…" she said "Are you truly with the lord known as Roland?"

That soft smile widened marginally. "But of course I am." he replied with a shallow bow. "We came all the way from out east to help the people of this province."

The cloaked figure stiffened marginally. "I… I see." she said, nodding. "Well then, thank you for coming to our aid."

"Thank you. I'm sure we will get along well." she then introduced herself to the newcomer. "You may call me An-Jia."

"A pleasure." said the cloaked woman in return, before turning off to the side. "Now, I don't mean to be rude, but there is a bit of a pressing matter."

"Yeah, but there's still something to consider before we get down to business." pointed out the old man, turning to the new arrivals, glaring suspiciously. "I was told there'd be more than a hundred of you. I see about twelve."

"Oh, well you're a bit out of position." said the lithe figure, earning a confused look in response.

Seeing this, the androgynous person giggled into a hand. "We were expecting to find you at the crossroads, so we were marching through the planes just west of here to intercept and meet with the caravan before the Turbans did. When you didn't show up, we had some scouting parties split off and look around to search for you." she explained.

"So much for those reinforcements." growled the tall man, before a smirk crossed his features. "Well, I guess that just means there's more glory for us."

"Oh, don't worry." An smirked as she passed him "We sent off a messenger to fetch the lord and his marching force."

The Hong Gou leader huffed. "Not like we'll need it." he boasted. "But, I'm sure your friends can help us clean up the bodies when we're done here."

"We'll see about that." smirked the androgynous warrior.

*Whoosh! Ka-boom!*

Another arrow went up in the air, and suddenly the sound of marching feet came into earshot on the edge of perception, only to stop not far off.

The three figures made their way through their makeshift bastion and climbed up the tallest peak of the hill, where they beheld the Yellow Turban force lined up before them a few leagues off. It was clear that they had achieved some semblance of military order since the previous conflicts, with spearmen being posted in front of their rabble of swordsmen, but it was a basic tactic and the lines were patchy and thin at best.

One man sat astride a horse, the old nag easily capable of hauling his light frame as he rode out in front of his army and approached the line of wagons.

"That's close enough, Turban!" bellowed the old mercenary.

"Come on now, I'm here to chat!" beckoned the bandit, gesturing over to his own army with his spear. "If not, then they'd be right behind me!" he boasted arrogantly.

"A fresh change, considering the distasteful habits of your friends!" replied the mercenary. "Well then, speak up!"

"I'm here to give you an offer!" shouted the Turban general. "You and those civilians have one chance to give up and walk away! None of us want to die today in a useless fight, so if you leave your valuables and don't offer any resistance, we'll let your people walk! You'll be poor, but alive!"

The silver-haired man turned to the cloaked woman at his side. "You figure he's speaking the truth?" he asked.

Said woman drew further into her cloak as though to hide from the enemy lines. "The Turbans aren't known for brokering deals…" she reasoned.

"They'll run us down the moment we leave this position." said An, glaring out over at the army. "We're fortified here and there's reinforcements coming soon. We can fight."

The merc scowled at the gender-neutral soldier. "I don't know about _you_ , but my people can hold this spot on their own." he said, before turning to the concealed woman. "So, your answer?"

She stood there for a moment, looking back at the group of cowering civilians.

 **Xxxxxx Meanwhile; With Roland xxxxxx**

The army crouched through the grass about a half a mile away from the battlefield, giving the battle a wide berth so they wouldn't be caught up in the Turban offensive.

They were all wearing rings of braided grass around their heads like sweatbands, woven with the tall, yellowish foliage from the fields around them to create a camouflage, the entire marching force resembling a field, slowly swaying in the wind as they crept along the plains.

Their armor and weapons were covered in dirt, any glittering metal that could catch the light was covered up and their colors were hidden behind the filth and various grass clusters stuffed into the joints and cuffs of their garb.

They crept along until they were crouched to the northwest of the circle of wagons, just ahead and far to the right of the front line.

Once they were in position, Roland gestured to the army to stop. The rear of the army continued their march for a bit after the initial signal resulting in a bit of an arched formation, but that was to be expected given that they were essentially playing a game of telephone passing messages down the line. **(1)**

The army sat there silently, watching on as the Turban messenger approached, listening intently as the mercenaries exchanged words with the bandits.

"Get ready…" Roland said to his closest allies.

He looked up as a concealed figure stepped forward, the shadow of the large grey cloak shielding all but the barest glimpses of pale skin from view. This person was speaking with the large silver-haired man on the hill and his own soldier, who seemed to be smiling in that same soft… rather unnerving way.

The goliath of a man simply nodded a few times, before stepping forward. "You expect us to believe that!?" he shouted back at the Turban leader. "You can take your offer and shove it! Or better yet, get closer so I can put it up your ass myself!"

Rather than being disconcerted by the vulgarity, the Turban simply smirked a little from his steed. "Honestly, I _wasn't_ expecting you to believe it!" he replied with an overly-dramatic sigh. "Oh well, I guess we're doing this the old fashioned way!"

Then, without another word, he turned back and rode over to his troops.

It was a few moments before he arrived at his own force, his horse coming to a stop before them all as he addressed the lot. "Alright men! First come, first serve! The valuables go to the higher-ups but the perishables and women are yours to take!"

This seemed to whip the Turbans into a frenzy. "Guuraahh!" they cheered loudly, all of them eager to satiate their desires, be them for blood, food, or those of a more depraved nature. Seeing this brought a smile to the leader's face so wide it looked as though his jaw might unhinge.

Deciding it would be cruel to make his men wait any longer, he then brought up his spear, and pointed it at the enemy lines; the sign to attack. And attack they did.

The men were more like feral dogs off the leash and bearing down on a flock of lambs. Of course, the more "eager" Turbans charged forward without thinking, rushing at the enemy lines and swinging their blades around, though this was much to the chagrin of their commander, seeing as their ranks were broken immediately. Many of the spearmen had trouble keeping ahead of the swords, and it seemed that the horde wasn't even concerned when the Hong Gou lowered their own spears to gore the initial wave.

However, most of the swordsmen didn't even make it that far, because it wasn't a minute after the first of their ranks had entered the "kill zone" when the first barrage of arrows fell upon their heads from over the hill. The hidden archers had been given their order to fire.

Their ranks were tightly compressed as they rushed forward to attack the front line, and the previous organization was disheveled by their mad charge, each one charging straight at the barricade, so pretty much every arrow found purchase on some form of yellow-clad flesh without even a single Turban having reached the mercenaries' barricade before a quarter of their men were shot down.

Near the back of the formation, many of the men broke and routed, having witnessed their allies fall so easily, whereas anyone who didn't was left tumbling over corpses, a couple even being trampled underfoot by their fellows as they tried to either flee or continue the charge.

Those that didn't flee or hesitate soon rushed at the enemy forces and their wave of destructive force broke upon the barricade of spears, the combined Hon Gou and Zuoh forces managing to hold back the initial charge by gutting, dismembering, or otherwise cutting down the front lines.

Still, though, there were too many to face in a head-on fight, even with only 75% of their forces on-hand, and the spears were soon pushed back, giving way slowly, but still barely holding the line under the sheer weight of the infantry rush.

Even as it seemed the defenders were struggling, many more of the Turban assailants were being cut down by repeated archer fire, and even a few of the swordsmen darted in and out, killing off many of the more troublesome Turbans and lightening the load of their spear line.

Some of the routing forces were cowed as the commander finally took control and started shouting orders. "You idiots! Get in there and circle aro-"

*Bang!*

"Gah!"

The man fell off his horse with a gout of blood as a bullet caught his shoulder. Most of the combatants on the field flinched in surprise at the sudden thunder, and the mercenary leader on the hill was left covering his ears and turning to look at the source of the noise.

Roland looked over as well, and there he witnessed An-Jia shakily leveling the lever-action rifle he'd handed her earlier at the area where the Turban commander once was. **(2)**

The man smirked. "Good soldier." he said, before turning to the rest of his force. "Tell everyone to get ready for my signal."

His warriors nodded and began to pass the message through the ranks as Roland himself moved up a little to get a closer look at the fight.

However, just as he was close enough to read the situation… it changed drastically.

Suddenly, a stream of red light rose from out in the foothills and a cloud of smoke and light exploded outwards.

Not just Roland, but everyone present in the battle turned upwards to see the popping, fizzling smoke floating about in the air.

"The hell…?" Roland asked, turning and looking around. _'A signal!? An ambush!?'_ he mused with a scowl.

Even before the last of the smoke faded, the turban's rear line immediately turned and ran, as though the retreat were sounded, leaving about a third of their forces in the melee with the Hong Gou line.

"Wha- Dammit!" hissed the cowboy in surprise, before standing up. He took aim with his revolver at the Turban flank, and with a hawk-like gaze, he fired off a single round into the crowd.

As the Turban fell, Roland's army rose, and suddenly the raiders were surrounded and outnumbered as the majority of their force fled the field. The cowboy stowed his revolver away and pulled the bowie knife from his boot.

The resulting slaughter was swift and brutal.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **And that's a wrap!**

 **(1):** This has little baring on the specific situation, but it might have an effect later on… maybe.

 **(2):** So, in case you didn't notice, I keep swapping between male, female, and gender neutral terms when referring to An-Jia. I learned _that_ technique from the Team Fortress trailers.

 **The plot thickens!**

 **You know, I was expecting this chapter to take a bit more effort. I was expecting that I'd have to make up this whole suspenseful battle scene where Kan'U comes in at the last moment to save Roland's hide… but I figure that there's plenty of opportunities for that sort of thing with bigger battles later on.**

 **Best not to waste the epic stuff on lesser fights.**

 **Anyways, we should get to the comments before anything else. Yeah?**

 **RedRat8:** Yeah, it's good to be back. Thanks for understanding, but I still feel a bit bad about taking my sweet-ass time with these chapter updates. That said, you should get more frequent updates for a little while at least while my inspiration keeps up.

 **Drake202:** Well, when the story gives you such a convenient punching bag, you don't just turn it down. Am I right?

Really? I couldn't imagine _anyone_ who would have issue with Sousou.

But that aside, I don't see Roland taking any sort of political role in anything he does. He'd probably rather be out there wrestling deathclaws. Also, sorry to disappoint you with the battle, but I figured this chapter took long enough to get out as it was considering I started writing it right away. Don't worry, though, I'll be showing off an epic battle as soon as the next chapter starts.

 **JumpingToaster:** First off; your name is rather appropriate considering the Old World Blues DLC.

But again, thanks so much for being understanding. I try to update as often as I can, but I would rather wait for the inspiration to strike and get out something of quality than force out shoddy work more often. You know?

Also, is cow's head soup a thing? I've never heard of that before but it sounds interesting… though I'm not sure it would be anywhere near as appetizing if it were a brahmin.

 **Croniklerx:** Yeah, I guess natural selection works for even the most basic of lifeforms, even for dumb bastards like those three. Too bad their other friends weren't present for that learning experience, though. At least for them.

Roland and ED-E might get back together sooner than you'd think… or later. It depends on how soon you're expecting the gratification of a subplot coming together.

 **Jajo Camello:** Really? Well thanks man! Or woman?

I'm not sure if you could totally say that Fallout and Koihime Musou are total opposites, though. I imagine Roland winning over the Zuoh district is sort of like the Fallout 4 settlement system, and once that game came out (just after the first chapter was finished), I took some inspiration from that when I thought about Roland rebuilding the ravaged lands of Zuoh.

Interestingly enough; I also take inspiration from the new Total War game- the Warhammer title- when looking for something to play out a battle scene. Koihime Musou doesn't seem to have much strategic depth to its gameplay.

As for Roland's role in the political backdrop of this world… we'll see.

For those of you who don't know, I like the slow burn and keep most of my plans secret. I do, however, tend to drop hints wherever I can, so you might be able to discern things from something I've said in the past.

 **Anyways, that wraps up the comments section. Thanks to all of you who took the time to drop a comment and show me you still love the fic and want to see more.**

 **So, as mentioned above, I had actually intended to have the battle for the caravan take place in this chapter, but I had inadvertently extended the chapter to a full 22 pages (my typical page limit) before I even realized it just because I started getting into the flow of writing. Now, I wouldn't normally have a problem going over the limit for the sake of the narrative, if not for a few factors.**

 **The first was that I had started writing this immediately after posting the last chapter, and after looking at how long it was since my last update, I figured it would be best to cut it off here.**

 **The second was the fact that I'm running out of steam for this particular fic. I feel like I would have to push myself to actually make a fight scene when I have so many other ideas and inspirations going on at the moment, and while I could no doubt get it done, that would extend the release date to an unknown point. I didn't want to keep you waiting that long, so I figured I would release this and then wear out my other inspirations until this became prevalent again in my mind.**

 **Third… I have a couple new projects I'm working on.**

 **That's right! I'm actually releasing not one, not two, but** _ **three**_ **new fanfictions in the near future! I feel like taking any more time on this would distract from them, and I wanted to get them out some time in the next month or so.**

 **Now, let's not get too disappointed. I intend for these to be side projects, and we all know that my fictions grow with the community love, so I will advance them as they grow more popular. This isn't bias; I just tend to be inspired to work when I see fresh comments for certain fics, which is why Crossing Worlds grew as quickly as it did.**

 **And for you, kind readers who managed to stay this long into the AN, I will give you a synopsis for each one!**

 **This is partly to gather feedback on the sorts of reactions you'll be having and this, in turn, will tell me what you want to see. So even if you don't have anything to say about the above chapter, I would love it if you expressed your excitement- or frustration- for one of the below projects.**

 **American Rebel** **:** Ever since the lone wanderer was kicked from the vault at the young age of 19 and left to survive in the irradiated wasteland above, she's been a bit unstable… now it looks like the rest of the world is catching up. What's an ultra-violent badass supposed to do when her world is being invaded by monsters and armies from other planes of existence?

Probably the same thing she's done to the monsters of her own plane; aim for the head.

 **As you can expect, this story's about the lone wanderer long after the events of the game, and is actually going to have qualities not unlike roguelike games where she enters different "dungeon" areas as part of her overarching story.**

 **Midnight Showing** **:** The world died once, and now it is reborn in this new form. However, as one young lady is soon to discover, the old world of darkness has left its mark on this new one, and history is doomed to repeat.

But it would seem that it chose the wrong girl to perpetuate the cycle, seeing as she's the only one crazy enough to make fate bend to her will... at least, that's what she'll become after undergoing the embrace.

The question remains, however, if she's capable of maintaining her humanity while suffering the madness brought about by the Malkovian bite.

 **So, you might not be totally familiar with this IP, but I find the World of Darkness tabletop games to be rather interesting from a lore standpoint. However, it would seem that the world created by Vampire the Masquerade; Bloodlines is going on outdated lore… lucky for me, this provides an epic opportunity.**

 **So, I decided to take the old story and set it in the modern lore. You'll notice a few changes in themes and terms, but it will essentially be the same characters you love, reincarnated in this new world.**

 **And as for the character… well how can you** _ **not**_ **choose to play as Malkavian?**

 **Ravenous Curse** **:** He was cursed. After spending so many years in the imperial guard and his entire life as a devout follower of the God Emperor, he wasn't rewarded, but punished. Cursed with a hunger that could not be sated.

Was this punishment for retiring from the guard? For joining the rogue traders? Had the ecclesiarchy been right, and the corruption he'd seen nothing but a fabrication? It meant nothing now.

Half man, half xenos, and left to rot in a new, alien world, so far from his own that not even the taint of chaos could touch it. A world where the immaterium condensed and twisted in ways that gave rise to a world of heroes and of villains.

When a former guardsman finds himself in another plane, he finds himself surrounded by sorcerers and xenos on all sides… including inside.

 **So, those of you who don't know me probably couldn't tell, but I** _ **love**_ **warhammer 40k. The atmosphere, the theme, and the characters are all so thrilling! But, I never got the chance to really do a fiction on it just because I would probably have to work with OC's, which I would rather not have done so early on after making From Ashes.**

 **Keeping in mind that my other characters are all main characters from RPG's**

 **I always wanted to make a W40k fiction, and I also wanted to make a DC fiction a little later on, so I came up with this little project a while ago but I never really knew what I wanted to do with it. Then I discovered Young Justice on Netflix… and I figured that was a good launching off point for the story.**

 **So, with the Suicide Squad movie coming out soon, I figured it was time to hop on the hype train and get this out.**

 **I'll be uploading the prologues for these fics on their own so you can all get a good feel for them and tell me what you want to see updated first, though that last one should be a bit later on since I already have the first two done.**

 **Oh, and I should probably note that they're out right now. Yeah. Have fun.**

 **Anyways, I feel like I've padded this out enough, so I'll let you all get on with your lives.**

 **Thank you all for stopping by to check this out, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **Buh-Bye!**


	9. A Letter of Apology

A letter of apology

Now, for those of you who keep up with my stories regularly, I think you're already aware that I've recently been on a long and unexpected hiatus, which I honestly wish hadn't been the case, but writer's block is back worse than ever before, thanks to a shocking drain of inspiration. Also, dislocating my arm may have had something to do with it.

Fortunately, I have had the time to review all my stories and do a lot of internal searching, as well as a few read-throughs of my admittedly limited library of previous works. As such, I have come to a conclusion. I need to do some editing.

The majority of my stories are lacking in their earlier chapters and need to be redone, which is why I'm releasing this in any story this applies to.

Essentially, I'm returning to fanfiction at least for a while due to a sudden resurgence of my muse, who seems to have taken a bit of a holiday, and I am now going to ease myself into the hobby again by rebooting most of the stories on my channel, be it with a few minor tweaks, or by gutting it entirely and just keeping the parts I really like about the original works.

Part of the reason for this brief glimmer of returning inspiration is that season 3 of young justice is coming out soon, and I happen to have planned a story about the series earlier! As such, the reboot will be coming out alongside another project.

Before you all worry I'm spreading myself too thin; I need to explain that my stories come from inspiration, not through forcing myself to generate content, which results in crappy products like the previous chapter of Divinity. I think the main issue was that I was trying to force out the chapter so I could get to work on the new story before my inspiration was sapped.

You see, I've seen people concerned that I might be forcing myself to make more stories, resulting in numerous projects being released at a time, but the real issue is quite the opposite, in that I have too much in my head at once and not focusing on what inspires me at the time tends to distract from whatever project I'm trying to work on otherwise.

I hope this can quench my thirst for the dc universe and maybe allow me to apply the newfound energy to other projects without that idea getting caught in the pipeline and blocking further inspirations.


	10. Inspiration Notice

Inspiration Notice

So, it's been quite a while since my last update, yeah? Well, I believe that I at least owe you an apology.

I won't lie; part of that is that I've just been feeling uninspired and lethargic. We've been over this before, how fanfic is my hobby and you shouldn't expect me to treat it like a job, but at the same time I did release a note on my inspiration returning and I feel like I should apologize for not giving you anything as a result.

Recently, though, I have been working on my stories again and giving them a major examination just to see if my writing style has improved much… Aaaand here I have encountered one of my old enemies; the editor's bug.

Whenever I look over something I did before, I find myself sighing and slumping over as I realize that I can do so much better, which compiles with my newest ideas, and gives me a damn inconvenient case of writer's block where I'm swapping back and forth between ideas as I write.

It's less a case that I'm biting off more than I can chew and more that my brain won't rest on one idea and let me just finish what I start. All this after I reclaimed my muse from the depths of lethargy. Good news is that at least I'm working again.

But that's enough of my moping! Here's a list of things I have planned for my existing projects.

 **Divinity and the Devil's Luck:** I feel like I have made a number of errors in earlier chapters. That is to say I have maybe not explained as many things as I should have in some earlier chapters, such as the origin of Roland's slingshot.

There's a reason for it and I planned to explain the full story later, but I should have maybe given a little taste of what there was behind it.

There's a number of little slip-ups I've noticed, but this is the most obvious I've noticed on first re-read, as brought to my attention by one certain comment by the user "thepkrmgc" who made me read back and think about it. Yes, you consider this me addressing your comment.

As an author, you tend to forget that the readers don't have the same information as you, so you make things a bit _too_ subtle and it can seem like things are totally random.

I don't want to present everything to you like you're a bunch of idiot children who'll miss something that's right in front of your face, but I don't want most of my plot to be totally out of nowhere for my readers. Finding a balance can be difficult.

 **From Ashes:** For those of you who still read this particular fic, I feel like I have the most to apologize for here, because I have not updated in years at this point. It's difficult to do that when Roosterteeth keeps changing up the tone of the series and I have to keep reworking the backstories for my characters and the plans for the story.

This is one of the reasons I don't like to do fics on ongoing series, and the exact reason I was afraid to do this fic to begin with.

Still, I made my bed, so I'll lay in it and make the attempt to make this fic more in-line with the series and its lore.

 **Crossing Worlds:** For this story, I have been mulling over something that's been gnawing at the back of my head for a little while now.

As I re-read "Crossing Worlds" one day, I had to pause and look at pretty much everything about that fic, and I realized something; This concept would work better if it were a High School DxD crossover.

Aside from the obvious connection to dragons, the tone is darker and has more legitimate violence, as opposed to slapstick and pointless fanservice… well, there's still pointless fanservice, but the story is less _about_ it and actually has a plot to drive it.

DxD is still the sort of harem genre thing where it's clearly wish fulfillment, but I also like that it's a bit more gritty; the world isn't all flowers, and rainbows, and jiggling tits in your face after this guy gets these random girls falling in his lap.

Issei, for all his upbeat perversion, has to deal with some shit, and so do his friends. And sure he may be given everything he has for no reason, but that's something we can easily work around.

I still love To Love-Ru for the exact opposite reason; just because it _has_ all the fun and casual concepts, and everything is flowery and I can sort of just escape to this fun world, but I think that it doesn't quite suit the concept of an Elder Scrolls crossover…

Except maybe something to do with Sheogorath…

Just gonna add to the list…

But, since I am going to be posting this on Fanfic, I figure I'd ask your opinions on the matter.

I'll be keeping Crossing worlds up, and will probably update often enough, whenever inspiration hits, but I originally based this story on something I wrote before DxD when I was much younger, and I feel I may have missed the trick here and could do better.


End file.
